


Punishment by proxy

by SpookySkeletons119



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Childhood Friends, Creampie, Dirty Talk, Established Friendship, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fear, Guilt, Internal Conflict, Jealousy, Light Bondage, Naked Cuddling, Non-Consensual Cuddling, Rough Sex, Semi-Public sexual harassment, Spanking, Teasing, Unwanted Feelings, non-con into con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:22:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27646111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookySkeletons119/pseuds/SpookySkeletons119
Summary: Marik's childhood friend is deeply troubled by Yami Marik's appearance, who finds a way to torment both her and his other personality. Honestly, it's basically porn with plot at this point. Takes place during the Battle City tournament on the blimp.Yami Marik x OFC, please be advised that non-con elements are present, don't read if you aren't into it, and read note mentioning that all main characters are adults.
Relationships: Yami Marik/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to note, most importantly, that all major characters in this fic are adults in their 20s. Their exact age is unimportant to me, it can be whatever you want.  
> I also wrote this on a total whim, the urge to write wouldn't go away, so I slapped this together to satisfy it. I'm not sure how much I'll write on this, but maybe someone will get a kick out of it, I don't know.

When Rishid fell, Penelope’s wide auburn eyes seemed to perceive time in slow motion, she’d been told before, she knew what would happen if Rishid slipped away. It always terrified her, and she’d always push the thoughts away before her imagination used the graphic information she’d been given a long time ago to create scenarios that were just unacceptable as far as she was concerned.

Little did she know that the last time she did that, it would be the last time she would be allowed to deny that possibility. That possibility which, much to her dread, was turning into reality before her very eyes.

To the mildest of relief, other people rushed to help Rishid, while Penelope felt frozen in place, her feet refusing to move, despite her desire to make some attempt to assist the man, no matter how fruitless she knew it would be after what happened to him.

The cool breeze caressing her cinnamon brown locks didn’t do anything to help her breathe easier as she turned her gaze back to her best friend, her childhood friend, the man she thought they would be by each other’s side until the very end. Marik’s fingers dug into sandy blonde hair, drawing blood underneath, while his body intermittently trembled and shuddered as he remained hunched over. The unsettling noises he was making were beginning to sound like growling, almost inhuman growling.

Her own hands trembled as she held them towards him, wanting desperately to comfort and help him despite knowing what was inevitable, but too afraid to even approach more than the few feet that separated them, while at the same time she held her hands up to her chest level as a subconscious defensive gesture.

A brief negative thought of Ishizu passed through her increasingly distressed mind, where could she be, why was she not here, at such an important time of all things.

“Marik?...” was all that could escape her lips, at a barely audible volume, she was unsurprised that she received no kind of response, not even a reaction from her struggling friend.

“M-marik!” she repeated, considerably louder, taking a step towards him, keeping her hands partially raised towards him while her eyes began to moisten at the glimpse she caught of his face, it made it painfully clear that he was barely there anymore, and he was struggling intensely for what little there was left of him to remain present.

She didn’t care that her exclamation instantly drew everyone’s attention and confirmed their suspicion, the fact that Rishid was not the real Marik, their questions in regards to what was happening to the supposed “Namu” barely registered to her, as did their further questions on the newly revealed identity.

The loud clinking on the floor when the Millennium Rod fell from Marik’s shaking hand that clutched the back of his head served to everyone else as more proof of his real identity, while it only drew Penelope’s attention for a moment, and the sight of his bare hand urged her to grab it.

Despite her worsening dread made more severe by his increasing growling, she pushed herself to do something, no matter how little it might help or even not at all, she had to at least try anything. Her trembling hand grasped his violently shaking one and she did her best to hold it as tightly and steady as she could.

“You can fight it, Marik! I know you can, please!”

It was all the more heartbreaking to see how hard he was fighting it, how much he was struggling, and how little it seemed to matter. She ignored Mokuba’s frantic radio call for paramedics, knowing full well this wasn’t a medical emergency, although a part of her wished it was, since that would have been easier to remedy than what was happening, and the fact that Rishid’s fading consciousness could not be helped by a doctor either only added to the gravity of the situation.

“Listen to me, please, stay with me!” she placed a hand on his cheek in an attempt to get him to look at her, but it was futile, he wouldn’t budge from head to toe, all she managed to do was get the drool from his chin on her hand

“Rishid!” she glanced back at the arena, only for her heart to sink further at the sight of the man having completely blacked out by then, his head held up by a concerned looking Jounouchi and Yugi.

“Ishizu! Ishizu, where are you, come here and do something, shi-“

Penelope almost bit her tongue when Marik’s hand abruptly squeezed hers painfully tightly, she wasn’t completely convinced that he hadn’t broken anything under her skin. She barely noticed the sandy blonde hairs between their hands that her friend had ripped from himself during his despair.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when, all of a sudden, everything completely stopped. He stopped shaking, his teeth stopped gritting, he stopped drooling and growling, his jaw and eyes unclenched, his muscles relaxed, his grip on her hand loosened entirely.

Penelope instantly felt it, how something had shifted, and how wrong it was, despite the fact that she had no idea how she could tell, all she knew was that the alarms bells inside her didn’t quiet down once Marik stopped struggling, they only changed in a way that confused her and still terrified her.

Everything, even the wind, seemed to have gone silent, at least as far as Penelope could tell, which only allowed her to hear her own heavy heartbeat thumping against her chest more clearly.

Whatever the warning she felt inside her was, it urged her to step away, and the sensation was so intense that she immediately complied, almost on auto-pilot, she slipped her hand away from Marik’s and took a few steps back while her gaze remained fixed on him.

When he finally moved again, he straightened up and threw his head back in a jerky motion that looked uncomfortable at the very least, but it still allowed her to see the unsettling wide smirk that grew on his face.

Then, when he leaned his head back down, Penelope’s already pale skin turned sheet white, she again somehow knew that something was very wrong. The man in front of her looked like the friend she’d known and cared about since she was a small child; physically, in virtually every way, he resembled that man, neither his face nor body had changed one bit, minus the ominous smile that cracked his lips, an expression heavy with malice that she had never seen on her friend before, not even close. He resembled her friend so much. Yet he wasn’t him. She didn’t know how she could tell, but it was unmistakable, it was as if a switch had been pulled.

This was someone else, someone whose emergence the remaining Ishtar clan and herself had dreaded for years, and when she finally dared to look at his eyes, the completely unfamiliar sight cemented the fact that Marik was gone.

It felt like the most slow yet agonizingly painful punch to the gut, her mouth had gone dry and she tried to keep herself from being sick. She was so distraught that it took her a few moments to fully acknowledge the glowing golden eye on his forehead, which felt like another kick in the teeth, just as she’d been told, the last time this happened, _he_ emerged with the Eye of Wedjat.

When she heard him speak, however, it added a new level of understanding of the fact that the worst thing really had come to pass, that deeper voice wasn’t Marik’s, her friend never sounded that way, not when they were little nor older. The sight of that completely unfamiliar voice coming out of someone so familiar to her was surreal, his talk with Yugi and Kaiba struggled to fully register to her, she felt as if she was zoning in and out, her mind wanting to escape the situation.

“[…]Compared to me, the other Marik is a child.”

Those words did echo in her mind though, and deeply unsettled her.

“He is _afraid_ of the darkness…”

The sight of her best friend speaking with another voice about himself as someone else was too much.

“[...]How fortunate that he would be the one to get smote down by God.”

Her glance followed his towards Rishid, and she felt a hint of anger rise through all the distress.

When he addressed Kaiba in regards to the supposed connection between the young CEO and the Millennium Items, it drew her attention a bit more, only because Marik had told her about that possibility himself before.

The more she listened to this other person, however, the more she felt herself mentally drift away, perhaps in some kind of automatic defense mechanism, her mind began replaying distant memories and events.

It was no awful coincidence that she found herself on the blimp at such a time, it was both part of her job and her passion to learn more about history, including the traditions and antiquities of ancient Egypt. All of which were also of great interest to her father and the company he owned, including all the museums it owned as well as the archaeology and history branches. It had been going on as far as she could remember, her father and Marik’s elders were business partners, exchanging ancient knowledge and artifacts for various kinds of other modern valuables and information.

She could always remember it, that one summer she went with her father on a business trip to Egypt as a young child. Despite her age, she had already been taught and was beginning to have a half decent grasp on the dialect spoken there, her father seeing it also as an opportunity to practice and learn, since their company had international connections, the earlier she grasped the most necessary languages, the better.

While to her it was a vacation, it was a complete accident to Marik that he was allowed to see the light of the day during that morning. Their friendship blossomed almost instantly, both enthralled by how utterly different each other looked in every way, the way they sounded as they spoke to each other, Penelope trying to use the language to the best of her abilities. Their glee was quickly halted by Marik’s father, the aggressive way the man spoke and gestured to his son, demanding him to return to the dark underground at once, concerned all the other foreign adults and frightened Penelope. Seeing the deeply sad but accepting look in her new friend’s eyes, the little girl, despite feeling intimidated, courageously left her father’s side and rushed to Marik, taking his hand, looking up at the cruel expression of his own father with pleading eyes. It took some expensive generous offers from her father for the man to agree to allow both children to tag along, play and get to know each other better, while the adults travelled with them around and discussed business, and she always remembered Marik telling her that it had been one of the best days of his life.

Some of the other best days being when she would plead her father to take Marik’s father on distant business trips, just so that Marik, his sister, and their older brother Rishid - both of which Penelope also became good friends with - could leave the dark underground dungeons they were forced to call their home and go on vacations with Penelope. The supervision provided by long trusted babysitters on Penelope’s end, while Marik’s uncle and aunt were the only people that could be safely bribed to tag along and allow the children some freedom and happiness under strict secrecy.

It all went as good as it possibly could under the oppressive rule of the Ishtar family’s patriarch, until that nightmarish day when Marik’s psyche finally fully shattered, and the monster that emerged had inflicted tremendous suffering on their father before the man succumbed to his horrific injuries. Penelope couldn’t even begin to fathom what having even a small portion of skin torn off while being fully conscious would be like, let alone the skin of one’s entire back, but she could recall occasionally feeling sick when she would remember the gruesome events being told to her by Ishizu and Rishid. There was no mistaking that their father was dangerously abusive and nobody, let alone children, should live the way they were forced to, but the way that man was disposed of made her lose sleep before, made all the worse by the fact that it was done by Marik’s hands.

Ever since then, the possibility of the monster that massacred their father returning was dreaded by everyone who had the misfortune of knowing exactly what happened. In the following years that went by, Ishizu in particular tried to bury that memory as best she could, while still remaining vigilant of any potential change in her brother.

Penelope could understand and respect her stance, but even if she could not, she wasn’t in any position to judge, since she grew close enough to the woman’s brother to assist him in various activities, some of them less legal than others, using both bribes and sometimes threats, as well as her connections established through her father’s company. She wasn’t proud of it, but it was good both for business, and her friendship with Marik, and he had convinced her that it was important and necessary. On top of everything, she always tried to ensure nobody would be hurt, and if that wasn’t possible, that any harm would be minimized and be well worth it.

A sudden strong breeze blew a few locks over her face, it was refreshing, it almost brought her back to the present moment where she did hear Yugi speaking, but his words didn’t register with her.

The sinister chuckle that came from Marik followed by his words, however, raised the hairs on the back of her neck and promptly seated her back in reality.

“There is no going back, now, you see.”

Penelope swallowed and blinked her dry eyes, realizing she had been staring into space for a while. She looked at him as discreetly as she could, through the corner of her eye, but her secret didn’t last long.

When the familiar violet, yet at the same time alien eyes suddenly pierced their gaze into hers, she felt her heart skip a beat. She could no longer pretend she was invisible, he was finally acknowledging her presence, and it made her stomach knot.

“As for you…” the already present smirk on his lips widened, and Penelope felt powerless to do anything except stand there frozen, even as his gaze began slowly traveling down her figure, then back up at her clearly frightened expression.

His head cocked to the side as if he contemplated or wanted to verify something, she could’ve sworn his smirk turned even more twisted before he slowly blinked at her, then aimed his gaze downwards.

“What are you waiting for? You know how important it is.”

With her mind flooded by a variety of unpleasant emotions, it took Penelope a few moments to realize he was glancing down and referring to the Millennium Rod that had been dropped on the floor, near his feet.

“Pick it up.” His voice dropped even lower, along with most of his smirk, he sounded serious, demanding, as opposed to the previous cocky, seemingly easy-going confidence from just before when he was speaking to the others.

In spite of all things, he had an actual point, the Millennium Rod shouldn’t be on the floor, especially after it was dropped, it was far from fragile, but it was still an extremely valuable antiquity at the very least. If nothing else, she could at least try to take it away from this other Marik, since, despite not knowing the full extent of its power, she had seen before what her friend could do with it, what bizarre, seemingly otherworldly abilities the object appeared to possess. The least she could do was pick it up and run with it, take it to Ishizu, just keep it away from him.

Penelope felt her mouth dry again, taking the first step was more difficult than she expected, as if her shoes were made of solid lead. It was all made worse by the way his eyes, including the one on his forehead, near stared a hole through her the entire time.

The silver lining arrived in the form of the paramedics, who rushed the unconscious Rishid away on a stretcher while checking his vital signs, Penelope’s gaze quickly followed them, some relief rising upon hearing that he had a weak but steady heartbeat and breath.

“Oi.”

The stranger occupying Marik’s body drew her attention back, sounding slightly more impatient, which only made the task of getting the Millennium Rod away from him more tense and frightening.

She swallowed apprehensively, pushing herself towards him while trying to keep at bay the horrific memories of what he had done to Marik’s father when they were mere children. The thought crossed her mind if he would be capable of even worse things as an adult, but she immediately did her best to block it, she didn’t need to make this any harder than it already was.

Trying to keep her gaze away from him and on the object of interest near his feet, she made a real effort to take the next few unsteady steps towards it, feeling her hands were already clammy. She dreaded bending over so close to him, she had to force herself to stop thinking and just act as if she was a robot, it was even more difficult than approaching him, and when she did it, she could’ve sworn she stopped breathing, until the moment her hand made contact with the ancient artifact.

Realizing this was her chance, she tightly wrapped her fingers around the rod’s handle, but as she straightened up, she twisted around too much, making it too obvious that she was planning on turning around and running away.

In one swift motion, he instantly grabbed her wrist uncomfortably tight before she could take off, ripping the Millennium Rod from her fingers, twisting her around to face him and planting the head of the Rod right under her chin and pushing it up, forcing her to look up at him, as he was nearly a head taller than her.

Penelope immediately regretted her attempt at taking the rod away from him and prayed there wasn’t some other power of the object unknown to her that allowed it to cause her harm in that position. She wanted to move, she didn’t know how she could free her wrist from his vice grip but she knew she wanted to get away, yet her body refused to comply. While some of the people around the duel arena had left with the paramedics and Rishid, one of the few that remained was Jounouchi, whose concerned expression turned hostile after Penelope’s failed plan and Marik’s aggressive reaction to it. The young man took a rushed step towards the two, but Yugi stretched his arm before him, preventing him from approaching and giving him a stern look, followed by stricter words when he turned to the aggressor.  
  


“Marik, let go of her, now.”

Both Jounouchi attempting to rush at him and Yugi’s words went completely ignored by Marik, who only slightly leaned down towards the frozen Penelope and spoke in a near whisper

“I’ve been waiting for a long time.”

As if she wasn’t panicking internally enough, those words sent her racing mind into overdrive. What could he mean, exactly, did he already have something malicious planned, how much harm did he intend on inflicting, and how much worse could he be than the last time he emerged. The questions and possibilities, along with the fact that the Millennium Rod was back in his possession, as well as his far too close physical proximity, made her feel weak, she aimed her gaze through the corner of her eyes, not wanting to look at him anymore.

Her lips parted because she reflexively wanted to say his name, the real Marik’s name, in a blind attempt to bring him back somehow, but she quickly came to what senses she could, realizing it was far too late for that. At the sight of her parted lips, however, a small twisted smirk grew back on his own, and he leaned down just a tad further.

“The _fear_ coming off of you right now…”

His words, perhaps in opposition to what he intended, brought back some awareness to Penelope, which was followed by the ability to shake off some of her fear and discomfort and compose herself enough to take a step backwards. However, she could only distance herself at an arm’s length, since he refused to even loosen his tight grip on her wrist.

“Marik!”

The relief of hearing Ishizu’s voice was instant, Penelope turned around to see the woman standing several feet away with a stern scowl on her face aimed straight at him, while her chest rose and dropped noticeably quickly, indicating that she had been in a rush to get there.

“Oh?.. “ Marik’s eyebrows raised with faux interest and surprise, but his grip on her wrist loosened enough to allow her to tear herself free. She quickly rushed to Ishizu’s side

“It’s been a long time, ‘sister’.”

Ishizu didn’t respond, her attention drawn by Penelope’s words and frantic disposition

“He’s back! Ishizu, h-he’s here, it just happened, just like you said, when Rishid got struck down by that.. I don’t know how the hell it just-.. i-it wasn’t a normal storm, it struck Rishid and he went unconscious, they said he’s alive but he wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t wake up! Shit, shit, what do we do-“

Her eyes were beginning to moisten before the other woman grasped her shoulder reassuringly and tried to match the sentiment in the tone of her voice

“I know, Penelope. Please, calm down, it’s going to be…” her words briefly faded “It was written.”

She knew his sister was talking about fate again, alluding to her ability to see the future through her Millennium Necklace, something Penelope had always been skeptical about, and now especially it brought her little to no comfort. While Ishizu herself wasn’t entirely confident and was frightened that the personality switch had come to pass again, she did have genuine faith that the situation could still be resolved without bloodshed, fact which did bring some comfort to Penelope as well.

Marik huffed towards Ishizu “Not even going to speak to me? How cold.”

“There is nothing to be said, you are not something that can be reasoned with.” His sister replied calmly, but both women tensed up when he began walking in their direction.

To some relief, they were only standing in the way of the exit, as they moved aside, Marik walked down the stairs, making it easier for Penelope to draw breath with each step he took away from them.

Her eyes remained fixed on him as he walked, however, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that letting him walk away like this was the wrong thing to do. She hated the idea, especially since she tasted that relief upon having the distance between them grow, she wanted more of it, she wanted to stay there until he was as far away as possible then rush to her own room and lock the door, maybe push a wardrobe or two in front of it.

But she felt the urge of knowing where he was going, of trying to find out if he was already planning something malevolent. With a deep breath, she composed herself and whispered to Ishizu

“I’m going to keep an eye on him.”

The woman swallowed, her expression softening, but nodded and spoke with caution in her tone

“I understand. Be careful, lock your door, and talk to me soon.”

Penelope nodded back “I know, you too.”

She heard Yugi begin talking to Ishizu but paid it little attention, focusing on following Marik as discreetly as she could, taking cover behind every corner that met the sides of the hallway just in case he turned around, and peeking out to continue the hopefully silent pursuit. The fact that it was night outside and this particular part of the blimp wasn’t as well lit as the more commonly occupied one offered some mild aid.

When he reached the elevator, however, Penelope panicked internally again.

_Shit, what floor is he going to?!_

There was no way for her to get even the vaguest indication of what button his hand was near inside the elevator, the doors were facing straight forward in the short hallway she followed him through, she would be easily seen. She could only watch from behind a dark corner how the elevator doors closed, and for a brief moment she could have sworn he glanced right at her before they were completely shut, she couldn’t tell if it was real or just her frightened paranoid mind playing tricks on her.

With a sigh of defeat, she could only rush to the adjacent elevator and press the button of the floor where both her and Marik’s rooms were, praying that her guess would prove accurate. Only after the elevator began moving did she realize her mistake and panicked again, she activated it too early, if Marik was indeed going to the same floor, she might arrive too soon to remain hidden.

In the heat of the moment and with far too many bad things and emotions happening very recently to allow her good judgment, instead of stopping the elevator at another floor on the way, she decided to press herself in the corner near the button panel where there was a blind spot, at least when viewed from outside at some distance.

Once the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open, it took her a few moments of encouraging herself to sneak a peek outside, and to her surprise, she had guessed right, she spotted Marik walking down the long hall, not far away from her, presumably towards his room, or at least, the previous Marik’s.

On one hand, the bright lights in this area made her feel more hesitant to follow him, but on the other, she was almost sure he was just going to go into his room, plus she was so close to her own room, where she could safely barricade herself inside. She swallowed apprehensively and pushed herself to continue following him, if nothing else to just make her way to her own room.

Despite her heart thumping heavily against her chest and every second feeling like an entire minute, everything seemed to be going well, she continued taking quiet steps a safe distance behind him, only briefly resting by the occasional corner to hide.

_Come ooon, move faster, you.. bastard… I just want to make sure you’re staying in your room.. and lock myself in mine, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.._

She didn’t know if it was worse or better that Marik’s room was closer than hers was, she would’ve loved to open her door and discreetly watch him from the safety of her room, but opening it would make noise. At least this way she could hide behind the corner before he reached his room, then watch quietly from there before rushing to her room as soon as he closed his door.

It was too bright, and especially too quiet, the latter of which adding to her feeling of unsafety, the blimp was massive and there were too few people on it, only the relatively few contestants and the staff which mostly kept away from the living quarters with the exception of the occasional cleaning and maintenance staff. The silence of the hallway only made the sound of his footsteps more easy to hear, it was oddly reassuring and unsettling at the same time, at least the continuous steady beat confirmed that each passing second was bringing her closer to safety.

Until the beat abruptly stopped.

Penelope froze in place as well, biting her lip with a spike of anxiety as her gaze remained fixed on the stationary man ahead, briefly dropping lower to the golden Millennium Item in his hand. She fully expected him to turn around, and dreaded the thought of him approaching her, with nobody else around this time.

Unbeknownst to her, Marik was well aware that she was following him, and decided to verify something, both to see what she would do, and to discard something he disliked.

Penelope’s brows furrowed with confusion when, instead of turning around, Marik grabbed the bottom edge of his lavender top, pulled it over his head, removing it then casually tossing it on the floor before continuing walking forward.

Her eyes blinked a couple times at the scene, briefly distracted by the sight of his sandy blonde hair partially covering the deep scars in the shape of ancient symbols and text that were carved into his muscular back. Moments later, she continued stepping forward, more cautiously this time, but as soon as she closed the distance to the discarded shirt, she picked it up without even thinking and crumpled it into a ball against her chest while remaining focused on following the man ahead.

When he finally reached his room and stopped in front of it, Penelope’s eyes darted towards her own, several chambers away and she froze in place. She remained dead silent as she watched him reach into his pant pocket for the keycard and slide it into the security device next to the door, prompting it to slide open with a gentle mechanical noise.

Her heart skipped a beat when instead of walking inside, he finally turned around to face her, his gaze lingering on the lavender shirt she held tightly against her chest, she could’ve sworn she saw him roll his eyes, she couldn’t tell for sure due to the distance between them.

Feeling her fear rise again in the few moments of silence that felt much longer to her, she flinched when he spoke up

“Come visit me soon, we have much to talk about, don’t we.”

The twisted smirk on his face was clearly noticeable, however, as was his amused tone of voice, which was followed by a dark chuckle that prompted her to take an instinctive step back.

He wasn’t expecting a response, at least judging by the fact that he then stepped inside and the door closed behind him.

The mechanical noise it made closing was one of the most relieving she’d heard that night, she immediately picked up the pace, rushing to her room, where the sound of her own door closing and locking was even better. A heavy exhale left her as soon as she knew she was safe inside, she didn’t even realize that she had been barely breathing for the past minute, and didn’t protest when her stressed out muscles wanted to relax, allowing herself to lean her back against the door and slide down.

Taking her time to compose herself and get her emotions as well as her frantic heartbeat in check, she took a few extra deep breaths, delighting in the feeling of everything finally slowing down in a relaxing, safe manner, her head leaning back to rest against the door, while her fingers loosened their grip around the shirt she held against her chest.


	2. Chapter 2

Penelope’s shower lasted significantly longer than it should have, an ominous feeling loomed above her constantly ever since Marik’s shift in personality came to pass, and some part of her hoped that it could be washed away by soap and water that was beginning to feel too hot.

It was no use, she left the shower before her already pink skin turned red and dried and brushed her hair and teeth, all done virtually completely on auto-pilot, her mind refusing to come back and rest in the present moment.

Upon leaving the small personal bathroom built into her room, her gaze landed on the abandoned lavender shirt on the end of the bed that rested against the wall lined with circular windows. She swallowed and her fingers gripped the edge of the white towel around her body tighter. The words of the one occupying Marik’s body rang back in her mind, as much as she dreaded the very idea, she had to admit, there were things she wanted to speak to him about. As soon as she glanced towards the door and envisioned herself approaching his room, however, she immediately involuntarily shuddered.

_There’s no way… But…_

She sat on the edge of the bed, resting her head on her palms.

_But I have to, don’t I. I’m not gonna be able to sleep until I get some answers out of that.. out of him. Or at least, until I know that he’s not going to give me any answers._

A long exhale left her, tired more than physically, and Ishizu’s words surfaced in her mind next.

_He’s not something to be reasoned with?_

Penelope had to admit, Ishizu knew more about the other Marik than she did, since she was there during the few times he had emerged in the past, but she couldn’t help hoping she wasn’t right.

Another glance at the door confirmed that it was still locked, she had lost count of the amount of times she checked to make sure the door was still locked, repeatedly urged by her paranoia and fear. She undid her towel and let it partially slide off of her, it was too hot, she didn’t know if it was just her due to the length of her hot shower, or if the temperature in her room really was too high.

After briefly combing through her dresser, she pulled out and slipped into a thigh length blue satin nightgown which she covered with an ankle length night robe. There was no way she was going to even approach the lion’s den without consulting Ishizu first.

* * *

Penelope couldn’t say she was surprised that Ishizu appeared conflicted, on one hand, the man’s sister was deeply concerned about him and would’ve liked any kind of reassurance that her brother would come back. On the other hand, she knew far too well how dangerous his dark personality was and feared for Penelope’s safety if she attempted to interrogate him.

“I mean, what’s he gonna do, kill me on this ship? There’s no way, he can’t get away with something like that here. …Right?”

From across the small table they shared tea on, Ishizu’s concerned expression was softly blurred by the steam rising from her cup, but her silence only unnerved Penelope.

“We have to at least try, you know that, and I really doubt he’s gonna talk if we both try to interrogate him at the same time. Well, not that I have high hopes that he’s gonna talk even to you or me separately, but still..”

Ishizu appeared to be partially thinking, but mostly lost in thought, her mind replaying distant memories. The other woman couldn’t tell for sure if her eyes were beginning to grow watery, or if it was just the steam of the hot tea, or just her own tired eyes, seeing as it was past midnight and neither of them could sleep.

“I do wish for peace of mind.” Ishizu finally spoke softly, her gaze turning to the window and the lights of the distancing city “But there is nothing to be gained from speaking to that man. I believe in what I said, he is not something to be reasoned with.”

Penelope’s own expression softened upon hearing her sad tone of voice and words, then perked up slightly when she continued in a noticeably more upbeat manner

“However, I know how stubborn and optimistic you can be when you think there’s even a small chance of something positive to be gained. Satisfy your curiosity, but please, be careful. Come back to me afterwards to let me know you’re safe.”

Penelope nodded enthusiastically before saying their goodbyes for the time being. Ishizu’s words gave her an odd feeling of excitement and motivation, which melted almost immediately upon remembering that she herself had very little hope that anything useful could come out of this, on top of the risk she had to expose herself to. She chalked it up to the small possibility of the unlikely to happen, but it did nothing to alleviate the fear that came back to her.

When she began walking down the hallway, she made a decision that worsened that fear considerably. It was so tempting to get back in her room, her eyes kept lingering on the left side towards it, but she forced herself to turn her attention on the right side where Marik’s room was, knowing that if she went to her own room it would take her a long time to gather the courage to leave it again and do what she wanted to do.

The feeling was too reminiscent of when he emerged earlier, she found it difficult to move, as if her soft slippers had magically been filled with solid lead, making each step needing a conscious effort to take. It felt like it had been too long since the tea she just drank with Ishizu, her mouth already beginning to dry the closer she got to the dreaded door.

Once she reached it, she placed a palm against it, the feeling of the cold metal against her warm skin was refreshing and brought her some slight clarity of mind, along with which came some courage, enough to knock on the door. Once. Then twice. And nothing, no kind of response came from inside.

The temptation to just turn on her heel and walk away was immense, she shook her head and decided to knock once more, and if there was no answer, she would leave with a huge sigh of relief yet mild regret.

Just after the final, barely-audible knock, however, she noticed the door wasn’t actually locked, only closed.

Penelope’s brows softly furrowed with an idea, especially since she still received no answer. It wasn’t an idea she was particularly fond of, but she thought, if he wasn’t there, she could just take a second-long glance inside to make sure, then leave.

She bit her lip with apprehension before tapping the button on the unlocked security device.

The view revealed upon the door sliding open made her involuntarily gulp and freeze up. Instead of the empty room, she was met with the sight of Marik sitting at the small table next to the window wall across from her, his back facing her, yet clad in a long purple cloth.

_Is that.. Marik’s Ghoul robe?_

Penelope blinked in surprise, then jumped upon hearing the eerie low chuckle followed by the disturbingly unfamiliar voice

“Not only did you come, as I expected, but you wanted to come to me so badly you would trespass?”

She couldn’t believe she caught a sense of shame rising in her before dismissing it, in any other circumstance it would be justified, but she couldn’t help feeling strange for someone like him making her feel embarrassed for opening his door without permission. Still, she decided to apologize, just in case

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-.. I was...” she didn’t know what kind of excuse or justification to come up with on the spot, and he didn’t give her the chance to find it anyway, cutting her off with a lingering smirk

“Get in already.”

It took her a few long moments of contemplation and hesitation until she fully stepped inside, feeling her heart begin to pump faster once the door slid closed behind her.

After a purposeful deep breath, she wrapped her arms around herself in a self-calming gesture and dared to step closer to the man ahead. She noticed the gold chain and hood of the purple robe he wore almost as a cape, confirming that it was indeed what Marik wore not long ago with the Ghouls, as well as the cream colored pants and black sleeveless t-shirt he replaced the previous clothing with.

On the table in front of him, her eyes traveled across the multiple stacks and rows of Duel Monster cards, and the pencil and scratch pad with a number of notes jolted down, before lingering on the Millennium Rod resting near the edge of the surface.

Her staring was abruptly interrupted by her own flinch when Marik leaned back in his chair, placing an arm over its backrest and partially turning to look at her. It was pitifully obvious how nervous she was, and unbeknownst to her, he already delighted in it and intended to test the waters more.

“I know it looks alluring, but you can’t have it. I can adorn you in other precious metals and shiny gems, but that one, it chose me, you see, so I remain its master.”

Penelope lightly frowned for multiple reasons and resisted the urge to take a step back, urge which became increasingly difficult to resist the longer he continued to stare her down, even more so as his gaze began traveling down her body. She gave in and took a step to the side, away from him, before clearing her throat

“What can I say, I know what you can do with that thing so..”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Marik suddenly interrupted, still with a smirk

“Oh, well, either way. What incomplete knowledge I have was more than enough to realize that it would be safer for everyone around if that rod was away from you, so.. I’m not going to apologize for what I tried earlier.”

She mostly kept from looking directly at him, but when she did throw a quick glance at his face, she saw how her last words made his smile suddenly drop. The serious, perhaps mildly irritated expression was enough to make her change her mind on the spot

“U-unless you really need me to, that is…”

Her words were followed almost immediately by the return of Marik’s smirk, she had to make an effort to not visibly scowl, suspecting that he was trying to toy with her.

To some mild relief, he returned to sitting on his chair normally, finally detaching his piercing gaze from her, and resuming searching through cards, placing some aside, changing some locations

“I suppose a ‘have a seat’ is in order.”

He sounded almost bored, and Penelope tried to not allow his casual tone to draw her into a false sense of security and lower her guard.

Her eyes darted at the two chairs on either side of the table, table whose small size meant she would be far too close for comfort to him. Seeing as she was already a few feet away and he wasn’t staring a hole through her anymore and she still felt uneasy, she couldn’t even entertain the idea of sitting down so close to him.

When her eyes landed on the bed on the left, next to the wall, the distance between the end of the bed and Marik seemed a lot more acceptable. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t the most proper place, but she would much rather pick it than be within less than an arm’s reach from him.

Hesitantly, she discreetly stepped towards the bed and sat on its end, the closest to Marik yet far enough to feel as comfortable as she could while being alone in the room with him.

Only a moment after she sat down, Marik stood up, facing her, his smirk so wide he was almost grinning. It made Penelope instantly jump to her feet as if the cool white bed sheet under her had suddenly transformed into a hot oven, then take a step back.

Marik briefly closed his eyes and chuckled to himself almost inaudibly, before lifting his empty palms in front of him in an attempt to calm her unease and indicate that he meant no harm

“Alright, relax…”

But Penelope only began to relax as best she could once he sat back down.

He said nothing else, deciding to see what she would do, while the increasingly long silence added to her sense of unease. A thought crossed her mind, of how the humming sound of aircraft engines droning on as she listened from the inside always used to relax her, even more so if there were people around, performing quiet tasks without speaking, as Marik was doing with the cards.

Despite all the elements being there, this situation inspired only the opposite of relaxation and comfort. Her tired gaze rose to look at him while his attention seemed to remain on the cards, and that sickly feeling came back to her. It was difficult to take in the sight of the man that resembled her best friend since forever to every imperfection, yet knowing not only that it wasn’t him, but also who the one replacing him was and what he had done, and what he was capable of doing.

As surreal and emotionally unacceptable as it was to see his body and face worn by someone else, she told herself she needed to keep herself together as best she could and do what she came here to do.

Taking a deep breath, she sat back down on the edge of the bed, and it took a purposeful effort to make her voice come out at a decent volume

“Where is Marik?”

His attention didn’t shift to her; he continued searching through a stack of cards

“You’re looking at him.” The casual way he spoke in, again sounding almost bored, and without skipping a beat, touched a nerve in Penelope

“You know what I meant!” she realized too late her voice rose to a level that made her fear his potential reaction, but to some relief, he didn’t have any at all. She cleared her throat before continuing more softly “I’m looking at a stranger…”

“Ooh?” his suddenly intrigued tone rang some alarm bells in her, especially when he turned in his chair to face her “Should we get to know each other better, then?”

Taken aback by his suggestion, she didn’t manage to hide the frown that quickly grew on her face. It only seemed to amuse him more, he chuckled and his eyes drifted to the upper right, as if recalling memories

“That wouldn’t be necessary on my part, though, since I’ve known you for a long time, now…"

Penelope’s lips parted with bewilderment

“Excuse me?..” was all she managed to say in a whisper, not realizing that she slightly leaned towards him, expectant of answers. Answers which, to some relief, he began offering after a short contemplative pause.

“Unlike my weaker counterpart…” despite the fact that he seemed cooperative so far, she already didn’t like the way he spoke about her friend, he caught the subtle frown that grew on her face upon hearing those words “Even when I am not surfaced, I am capable of staying _near_ the surface for a lot longer, you see… I’ve been watching you and him and the rest of those fools along the years.”

His smirk grew ever so slightly more twisted upon noticing the disturbed expression on her face, he continued when she lightly shook her head, despite the fact that she had little doubts that he was being truthful, and knowing that he could prove it to her by recounting private events or secrets.

“Yeees, too bad for him, he can’t do the same.”

Penelope glanced at the glowing Eye of Wedjat tilting when he slightly cocked his head to the side until a soft pop could be heard, then leaned back in his chair, sounding distant and uninterested when he spoke again

“My weaker personality is sealed deep in my heart now, he doesn’t even have the strength to come near the surface, let alone take over.”

Hearing those words made her hand rise to cover her mouth and briefly close her moistening eyes. She swallowed, taking a few moments to convince herself to ask her next question

“Is there… Anything at all that could change that? Any way that he could come back soon?”

Marik huffed with faux amusement, it didn’t inspire her hope, and any hope she had was swiftly crushed by his cold answer

“Soon? How pitiful, he’s not coming back, ever. There’s nothing any of you can do about it.”

If it had been her own bed, Penelope would’ve curled up and cried herself to sleep, but she did her best to keep herself together, drying her moistened eyes with the sleeves of her satin robe.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Marik added as he turned back to the table, in a lower voice, as if the comment was more to himself.

She pulled her sleeves over her hands in which she rested her face, remaining quiet while her mind raced, but every thought holding a potential solution that she followed only lead her to a mental brick wall instead of any action she could take.

The sound made by the humming engines of the airship was the only comfort she felt, the most tired part of her telling her to leave and go rest, but she didn’t feel ready, didn’t feel it was enough, despite being aware that more information might only make her feel worse.

“Why do you exist…” she whispered to herself absentmindedly, then wanted to kick herself upon realizing that he heard her and looked at her

“Oi, oi, if you want me gone so badly, the only thing you could do is kill me.”

He didn’t sound nearly as serious as someone suggesting something like that should be, and the sound of him grabbing the Millennium Rod drew her attention, while the sight of him actually removing its lower handle, revealing the sharp blade, made her eyes widen and body tense with fear

When he stretched the arm holding the Rod towards her, however, even with neither the blade nor the head of it aimed at her, she felt her frown deepen, unsure what kind of twisted test he was putting her through

“As if… Even if I wanted to, I would never be able to hurt someone like that. Not even.. someone like you.”

Marik chuckled at the way she seemed to shrink back at the sight of the blade and the suggestion of violence, as he expected.

“Of course not.” With frightening speed, he retracted the supposedly offered object and slammed it vertically on the table, piercing the blade through its surface.

Penelope nearly jumped out of her skin, she flinched and abruptly sat up, taking a large step backwards.

“Of course not, remember that this is my weaker counterpart’s body as well, so if you kill me, you kill him too.”

As much as she wanted him gone and her friend back, she didn’t even want to entertain the idea. It was all just cruel, if anything bad happened to his body, it would be her friend who suffered as well.

The sound of the chair being pushed across the floor snapped her out of her short internal protest about how unfair the situation was, and seeing him stand up and begin walking towards her made her heart skip a beat before starting to thump heavier and faster against her chest. She mentally told herself she needed to leave, immediately, but it only took moments to have her stuck between the wall with the bed and himself, closing the distance before she could act on her desire to flee.

“Fortunately for his pitiful existence, if you can even call it that, I want to preserve my life.” It was a small silver lining that he at least didn’t grab the bladed Rod as he approached her “I like being here…”

His voice trailed off, and Penelope felt frozen like a deer in headlights, even more so when he stopped right in front of her and his arm reached for her neck. To the mildest of relief, he only pushed her long locks behind her shoulder, but when his hand rose to her cheek and caressed it, she didn’t know how to react. Her gaze remained fixed straight ahead, in his direction but not looking at him, rather staring into space in fear and confusion as to what she should do.

“Did Ishizu send you?”

His voice was even lower than usual, both in pitch and volume, it took Penelope a few moments to process his words and gather hers together for a response

“N-no, not at all, in fact she was against talking to you, I had to convince her…”

She thought she was being discrete when she ever so slightly moved back as she spoke, distancing herself a small step away, but he didn’t lower his hand. The way he stared at her with that lingering smirk and lightly furrowed brows while his empty hand remained where her cheek used to be made her feel like she did something wrong.

The gentle up and down movement of his shoulders and chest in a sighing motion drew her attention only for a moment, it was quickly followed by a sharp yelp when he tightly gripped her shoulder in that empty hand and roughly pushed her to sit onto the edge of the bed.

Almost as soon as she began looking for a way out, she realized she didn’t have much to work with, she was more or less in the corner of the room. Her internal panic rose to new heights when Marik not only stepped as close as he could to the edge of the bed, but also placed his knee on it, right next to her. The proximity along with the fact that the position allowed for his crotch to be perfectly level with her face made her back away in fear as much as she physically could, which was not a lot, considering the bed, like all others, was relatively small, sized for one person.

“Of course she wanted nothing to do with this. Typical of my sister, always would rather have others do the dirty work while she stays at a safe distance..”

Penelope wasn’t even aware of the way her chest rose and dropped with noticeable speed, her fear and anxiety causing her breath to accelerate along with her heartbeat. She also wasn’t cognizant of the way her robe had parted near her chest when she fell on the bed, and completely clueless of the fact that Marik’s gaze kept lingering on the exposed cleavage of her admittedly risqué nightgown, which was supposed to remain obscured by the robe.

She wanted to protest against his words about Ishizu, shaking her head in disagreement, but for a few long moments, felt it difficult to collect her thoughts and form a convincing sentence in her position. Just when she thought she found her words again, she lost them when he reached down and ran his fingers through her hair, once, and then twice, as he hummed, seemingly thoughtfully.

“You, on the other hand…” she felt herself tense up further when he dug his fingers into her hair again, but this time didn’t remove them. “Always by my weaker counterpart’s side, weren’t you.” She could have sworn she picked up some animosity in his voice, not towards her, but towards what he was saying himself.

Briefly glancing up revealed that he was still staring down at her without that unsettling smirk on his lips, although she didn’t know if she found his demeanor more disturbing with or without the smirk.

“Through the thick and thin of it” he continued with the malice in his voice a lot more obvious, and she involuntarily tensed up further when she felt his grip on her hair tighten, not allowing her to pull back even half an inch “Even when your affairs started pushing the edge of the law, eh? And you always present yourself as such a good girl, moral, law-abiding girl.” The sudden way in which his spiteful tone was replaced by a mocking one threw her off, as did the chuckle that followed.

Penelope shook her head as best she could, her movement restricted by the tight grip on her hair

“He was my-.. He is my friend, of course we stuck together, and.. I’m well aware of the way we.. bent the law, but.. Marik said it was for a good cause, there were multiple.. factors involved, I-I don’t have to explain myself to you-“

She drew in a sharp breath when he pulled on her hair towards him, doing her best to not allow him to shrink the already way too small distance between them, even though it hurt to resist.

To some relief, he then released her hair, barely having the time to stroke her head in a supposedly gentle manner before she quickly pulled it back. Her gaze landed on the door behind Marik, and she decided to force herself to move before it got any worse.

“I think it’s time for me to go-“

She hadn’t even finished standing up when he roughly shoved her back down, her already racing mind surging her internal panic up to eleven. Just when she didn’t want to think of how it could get worse, the panic dial was cranked up even higher when he sat down next to her, but as he descended, he hooked his thumb on the edge of her robe on the back of her neck, pulling it down to her hips in one motion and holding it down against the mattress.

While Penelope tried to process the danger she was in and find a way out, Marik bunched the fabric of her robe tightly in his fist, holding her arms together at the elbow behind her back. Her frantic attempt to stand up again was thwarted by him simply pulling her down by the robe that restricted her movement. Once she landed back on the bed, she panicked further when he leaned towards her, and at the feeling of his hand grasping her thigh, both as a way to prevent her from trying to get up again and to intimidate her.

“How ungrateful and selfish you all are, really.”

In her panicked state of mind, she couldn’t even begin to decipher what Marik meant, her eyes darted at him and the door between rapid breaths with a confused, pleading look

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, please, I have to go, let me go, there’s nothing more I want to discuss.”

“Tsk.” She already didn’t like the sound of that, and when he spoke, he sounded plainly irritated “It’s always about you and him, and his dear siblings… Free to run around the surface, with your little plans and affairs.” Penelope swallowed at the pain caused by his grip on her leg tightening, tensing up further at the increasing malice in his rising tone “Who do you think allowed them out of that tomb, huh?! If it wasn’t for me killing those geezers, they’d still be crawling around in the dark under those rocks! All those years I was forced to live deep inside the ground, and deep inside _his_ psyche, the only times I surfaced were to offer him and his ungrateful siblings freedom, freedom which he was too weak to take for himself!”

Penelope blinked with some realization, beginning to understand that he seemed to have some serious unresolved issues about the past. Her eyes darted back to the door, but didn’t dare to try to get up again, terrified of how Marik would react this time, in his angered state. The thought of screaming for help also crossed her mind multiple times, hindered by the same reasons, plus the fear that nobody would hear her in the first place, and even if they did, what Marik could do to her before anyone managed to reach her.

“It was.. unfair, you’re right.” She made a weak attempt to calm him down by agreeing with him, she didn’t know if he ignored her because he wanted to or due to how her voice came out barely audible. At the very least, she was slightly thankful that his voice wasn’t raised anymore, although it was still thick with animosity

“And when _you’d_ come along, spoiling them, taking them out of that dark hole, while I was stuck in another dark void, in his mind… It was like drowning, I could come close to the surface for a while but never break it, and when I’d be close all I could see was you, spoiling and indulging them, and later, them being ungrateful of the freedom I gave them.”

His words were followed by silence which, the longer it went on, the more it added to Penelope’s unease. Her jaw trembled with fear when she parted her lips, not wanting to say anything that would anger him more, but wanting him to calm down

“I’m sorry, I know it was terrible, the way they had to liv-.. E-everything that happened, really, it shouldn’t have..” she hoped she hadn’t made it sound like she dismissed what he appeared upset about

The heavy exhale he gave made her suspect that he had cooled down, confirmed when he spoke up in an almost normal tone, although she had to admit it was scary how abruptly his outburst came and went

“No matter, now…” the very slight relief she felt was replaced with more unease when his grip on her thigh loosened, but only to begin rubbing the skin “I may sound bitter, but, I’m not planning to live in the past.” Penelope drew a sharp breath in and felt it freeze in her lungs when he began moving his hand upwards and leaned so close that he pressed his head against hers and spoke right next to her ear “I plan to make up for it.”

Instinctively, she attempted to shoot up from the bed as if she was sitting on hot coals, unsurprised that she was immediately stopped again by a rough tug on her robe. Worse, he placed his leg to the side, so that when she landed back down, she sat on his thigh, and the hold of the robe around her elbows was replaced by the much stronger hold of his arm around her waist.

When she kept whining and struggling to break free, however, his hand around her throat in a firm grip both silenced and stilled her. It wasn’t tight enough to restrict her breathing, but it was more than enough to make her feel like an utter fool for doing this in the first place.

_You freakin’ idiot, why did you come to his room, what did you think was gonna happen?! I should’ve known better, shit, shi-_

Her self-berating was interrupted by Marik pulling her closer to him, speaking over her shoulder next to her ear, the proximity of both him and the voice so close raising the hairs on the back of her neck

“I always did wonder…” His voice returned to that almost amused tone along with that smirk, which concerned her, but not nearly as much as the feeling of his hand grasping the flesh of her upper thigh again. She tried to cross her legs before realizing it was a lot easier said than done due to the position she was stuck in, with his thigh holding them apart. On the dimmest bright side, placing his hand on her thigh meant he had to partially release his hold around her waist, although she didn’t feel brave enough to attempt another escape just yet.

His following words, however, instilled a different kind of fear in her

“Why he didn’t fuck you…”

Her panicked reaction, the way she shook her head with a variety of negative emotions and reasons, and the way her cheeks flushed red within seconds, it all seemed to amuse him further, stretching his twisted smirk wider.

“W-we didn’t have that kind of a.. relation-“

“Another thing he was too weak to do? I’ll enjoy taking care of that.”

Penelope felt her muscles go limp with dread while her stomach made brand new knots of anxiety, her sickened sensation only worsened by him parting his lips and letting out a chuckle that she couldn’t describe in any other way than downright creepy and deeply disturbing, especially after what he just said. Her whole body screamed that she needed to get away, and another part of her warned that if she could stand up, she might fall over due to how dizzy with nausea and fear she felt, while her breath more or less completely froze in her lungs.

It was all only made worse by the sensation of his hand on her thigh beginning to travel upwards, she reflexively whined and made a mostly failed attempt at crossing her legs. Her eyes darted between the door and the hand that disappeared under the hem of her nightgown, as distressing as it was, there was a surreal aspect to it. It was Marik’s hand, the hand she held as a child when they became friends, when they ran around in the sand of the desert villages while their parents worked, then the sand of the exotic beaches in brief happy moments of freedom for him and his siblings, the hand she held as they grew up, supporting each other through difficult times. Marik had never dreamed of putting his hands on her like that, it was the last place that hand belonged in, it was a violation of both herself and him.

It was like a blessing from whatever god was watching and feeling merciful that Penelope’s phone suddenly started ringing, and that Marik still had human reflexes. The abrupt, loud noise startled him for just a moment, long enough for Penelope to feel it, feel his loosened grip, and immediately rip out of his hold, landing on her knees but quickly scrambling to her feet and answering the phone.

“Ishizu!” she shouted the woman’s name as soon as she heard her speak hers

Marik’s frown announced how displeased he was at the interruption, he stood up, but Penelope wasted no time in rushing to the door

“Where do you think you’re going, we’re not done, not even close.”

Despite listening to Ishizu, she heard Marik’s words too, but the last thing she wanted to do was stay

“I just left his room, I-I’m fine, yeah, I’ll come over in a minute.”

The seconds it took for her fingers to frantically search for the button that operated the door and for it to slide open were some of the longest she’d ever felt; once she was out in the hallway, she rushed to her room without looking back. Only after locking her door behind her did she let out the biggest sigh of relief in recent memory.

On still trembling legs, she rushed to the bathroom where she splashed cold water on her face and did her best to recompose herself before going over to Ishizu. She already knew that there was no way she could bring herself to tell his sister everything that happened, no, she could only tell her what she spoke with him and live with the guilt of lying by omission to her. She didn’t like it, but she felt there were reasonable motives for her to withhold information, mainly how stupid she felt for walking into the lion’s den in the first place, and not wanting to add to Ishizu’s worry or make her feel like she was somehow partly to blame, so she figured sharing their dialogue alone would have to suffice, at least for the time being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any typos or bad writing, I proofread it myself but I don't have a beta reader anymore so :( Feedback welcome.  
> I'm not convinced this fic is up to the standards I set for myself when writing so I don't know how long this will stay up.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night, she wasn’t surprised that it was nearing the early morning and she still couldn’t fall asleep, her mind refusing to stop racing, both with endearing distant memories, and frightening recent ones. In a brief outburst of frustration at her discomfort and inability to sleep, she tossed the thin blanket off the bed with her foot. It was a bit too hot, at least to her, even in the short nightgown; normally she felt most comfortable sleeping naked, but recalling even for a moment the way the new Marik had looked at her made her shudder at the thought of getting out of the clingy nightgown.

Another hour of twisting and turning passed after realizing that staying still didn’t help her fall asleep, only made her feel more hot and uncomfortable. A glance towards the bathroom suggested the alluring idea of taking a lukewarm shower, but at the same time, she felt too physically tired to get up, she only wanted everything to go dark for a while, she wanted all the thoughts and worries and stress to at least go on pause.

Looking out the window at the night time city lights, growing ever distant, it crossed her mind of how normally, she would love being in a situation like this: safely in an aircraft gliding through the clouds, a great view from her personal room, the soothing sound of muffled engines or propellers, able to put her worries at rest until she arrived at the destination. Not so much this time around, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed almost funny in an absurd, twisted way, being stuck on an airship with the worst possible thing about Marik having come true.

Eventually, her mind finally began slowing down and inching closer to the edge of sleep.

_Maybe we should tell people that there’s a sadistic murderer on board…_

The thought crossed her mind that was clouded by sleep, thought which made her blink her eyes half open in realization.

_Shit, who’s gonna believe us, it’s a crazy story and the crimes aren’t on any official records…_

A deep exhale left her as her heavy eyelids fell closed, content with the understanding that she was finally beginning to fall asleep. As was the usual, when she was on the edge of sleep, her mind got busy circulating many, many different, seemingly random thoughts, increasingly incoherent, while it was in the process of shutting down for the night. She was barely conscious of it, more aware of the relieving feeling of finally falling asleep. Until some of those supposedly random thoughts made the whole process screech to a halt.

_It’s weird how I didn’t fight him more-why didn’t I-that bastard-felt kinda good-exciting-_

Penelope’s eyes shot open with a sharp inhale, immediately deeply disturbed by her own thoughts. Her arms subconsciously moved to hug herself in a self-comforting gesture, suddenly missing that blanket she tossed on the floor, as a sense of coldness came over her. She swallowed, shook her head and reached for the blanket, wrapping herself in it, the unsettled frown on her face remaining solid, even as she tried to rationalize it.

_That’s insane, I was scared out of my mind, that’s just.. no, these kinds of thoughts, this is the kind of nonsense your brain flushes when it goes through the shutting down process, it’s normal, it happened before…_

She tried to convince herself and didn’t linger on the fact that she didn’t believe that this was the case this time too, nor on the fact that she couldn’t remember having a similarly disturbing thought while falling asleep before.

To some relief, it hadn’t been that long until she finally fell asleep, mainly due to the very late hour.

* * *

The few moments immediately after waking up were of blissful ignorance, until all the memories flooded back, and her stretch was interrupted, falling limp, and replaced with a sigh. Considering the hour she fell asleep at, she wasn’t too surprised to see it was nearly noon; she felt hesitant to get up, then the also unpleasant memory of the thoughts that ran through her mind right before she fell asleep returned, and she shot up from bed, eager to get busy or at least distracted.

After a shower, she finally noticed the lit up screen that was in every person’s room and announced information about the tournament. Penelope’s jaw dropped when she read the words displayed:

**_DUEL IN PROGRESS – MARIK ISHTAR VS. MAI KUJAKU_ **

“Oh… Oh God, no.”

Now in a rush, she tossed the towel off herself and pulled the first items she put her hands on from a drawer, which turned out to be a red and black plaid skirt, and a white blouse. She hadn’t even finished fully brushing her hair before she dashed out the room, using her fingers to do the rest of the job as she rushed to the elevator.

The upwards trip seemed to take longer than it did any time before, thanks to her anxiety, and when she finally reached the top of the airship and hurried to the duel arena, her worst fear was confirmed.

It was a shadow game, the writhing darkness in the air alone was telling enough, while the heavy atmosphere of abstract, ungraspable but very present terror and looming death was what she hated the most about it. Why a part of her clung to the idea that this Marik wouldn’t start a shadow game from his very first duel was beyond her; she hated it even during the times her friend had summoned that dreadful darkness, she told herself how foolish it was to have some hope that this Marik wasn’t going to immediately do this.

She also didn’t want to think what he’d been doing to that poor woman’s mind, but as she stepped out, the full sight of what had been happening hit her like a brick.

Her knees weakened at the sight of the Winged Dragon of Ra behind Marik, and a glance at the woman bound to the Sacred Palette of Wedjat was more than a few horrifying hints of what had been happening, and worse, what was about to happen.

Since Mai was the one whose back was facing the entrance to the arena, Marik was able to spot her quickly as she stepped closer to the observation area where Yugi and his friends were. Both the golden Rod in his hand and his gaze lowered to watch her, she was unsurprised at the wide smirk on his face, and tried to not get intimidated when he spoke loudly towards her. The way he addressed her, however, nearly made her stumble over her feet

“Ooh? And where have you been? You’ve missed almost the entire show, plaything.”

A mix of anger, disgust, and embarrassment stirred in Penelope’s stomach, she ignored the few looks she received and the fact that she wasn’t alone made her feel courageous enough to shout back at him

“What did you do to her, you sick bastard? You couldn’t just play the game normally, you just had to invoke whatever.. fiendish shit that comes out of that rod! And what did you just call me?!”

He chuckled to himself, amused at both her brave outburst, aware that she was only doing it because she was in public, surrounded by people, fact which he quickly realized he could still use against her when he replied eagerly

“I’m not wrong, though, you would’ve agreed if you hadn’t run away so quickly last night!”

Penelope felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment, and then with more anger when she saw the way his smirk stretched upon noticing the change on her face. He must have known, she figured he must have known how much she hated to be publically embarrassed, and took the opportunity to not only be crude to her, but do it in such a way that would make her feel even more shame than if they were alone.

“Oi, Penelope..” Jounouchi’s voice drew her attention, his concerned gaze mixed with confusion shifting to her for a few moments before returning to Mai “Do you know this scumbag? He doesn’t seem anything like that Namu guy, can you tell me anything?”

Penelope bit her lip with discomfort and, admittedly, some guilt as well

“I can tell you that there was never any Namu, Jounouchi.. There was only my friend Marik, and he’s gone, this maniac replaced him…”

It hurt to say those words, but they were technically true.

“As for this one…” Marik drew their attention, and him raising the Millennium Rod towards Mai raised Penelope’s concern further “It’s time to end this duel and feed this woman to the Darkness.”

Almost immediately, Jounouchi took off to the other end of the arena, but unsurprisingly, his request to lower the duel ring was denied by the Kaibacorp employee acting as a referee. Disregarding the warning of potential disqualification, Jounouchi climbed up on the duel ring and attempted to talk to the woman, to snap her out of the trance she was trapped in. Penelope couldn’t help feeling emotional, her hand raised to cover her mouth, she could tell his efforts were futile, she had seen people who were on the verge of losing this kind of a shadow game before, they were barely conscious, on the verge of losing themselves.

When Marik ordered Ra to attack, the light was almost blinding, she took a few steps back and partially covered her eyes from the golden rays, so bright that they pierced even the living darkness that surrounded them. As the God’s attack charged up, Penelope felt a bizarre sensation, her anger was replaced by a type of sadness, sadness at the thought of how the emergence of this Marik could have been avoided but hadn’t been, and sadness at the way she felt completely powerless to stop him.

Just when she was about to go on an internal trip of feeling sorry for herself and everything around, she was suddenly surprised to hear Mai’s voice talking to Jounouchi, she had amazingly regained consciousness through his efforts.

“God Blaze Cannon!”

Marik’s dreadful declaration quickly reminded her to not get her hopes up, and as the winged beast unleashed its attack, Penelope was even more shocked to see Yugi shield his friends with his own body.

She could only stand and watch as the fiery inferno rained down on the young man, his grunts and screams making it obvious that it was even more painful than it looked, while she had an increasingly difficult time seeing due to the moistening of her eyes, she knew what was going to happen in the end, and she hated it, nobody deserved that.

Finally, he collapsed to the floor, unconscious, and Penelope’s legs acted without her, before she knew it, she already rushed to the exit. She had to make an effort to stop herself near the doorway, partially hiding herself behind it and wiping her eyes dry. With a nauseating feeling of fear and guilt, she watched the rest of the events, the referee declaring Marik the winner of the duel, and the latter threatening Jounouchi before inflicting the punishment of losing the shadow game on Mai.

Her muscles felt limp, but only while Marik finished talking to the others, once he began walking towards the exit, in her direction, she suddenly became rigid with anxiety.

Before the sounds of people talking with clear concern began to fade into the background, at the very least, she heard Yugi regain consciousness. That relief was quickly washed away by the noise of Marik’s approaching footfalls, and it took her a few moments to snap out of her deer-in-headlights trance.

She took off down the hallway towards the elevator, only increasing her pace when she heard him shouting from behind at her in an infuriatingly amused tone

“Oi, oi, I won my first duel after being gone for so long and I don’t even get a hug?”

The thought of hugging him, especially after what she just witnessed, made a shiver run down her spine, she dashed into the elevator and mashed her finger against the button of her floor over and over. She purposefully avoided looking at him the entire time, and only after the doors finally closed did she breathe a sigh of relief, then then another bigger one after she reached her room and collapsed onto the bed.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Penelope’s anxiety refused to cut her a break, she struggled to leave her room and visit Ishizu’s, considering how close Marik’s was. When she did talk to the woman, the latter seemed saddened but unsurprised by what had happened, and Penelope resisted the urge to ask why Ishizu hadn’t attended that duel.

She knew there was nothing either of them could have done to change the outcome, but she couldn’t help it; she couldn’t help the sense of guilt she felt either, despite Ishizu reassuring her that the loss of their friend and brother wasn’t within their control, that they couldn’t have predicted what happened to Rishid.

It took more strength to venture further from her room to visit Rishid, her anxiety being nearly constantly high during the time she spent with the comatose man, throwing a glance over her shoulder frequently, while her visit to the deeply unconscious woman had gone virtually the same way. When her growling stomach reminded her that she hadn’t eaten anything all day, she rushed to the cafeteria and brought some food to eat in the comfort of her own safe, locked room.

As the evening came, she still found it difficult to relax, so she put on a movie in the hopes of distracting herself, which was interrupted halfway through by the display on the wall turning on, the orange light under it flickering to indicate a new announcement. She blinked in surprise when she read that the next duel was Ishizu herself against Seto Kaiba, and it was going to start relatively soon. She wasn’t sure why Ishizu hadn’t attended Marik’s duel, but she knew she was going to attend hers, the bad part was that she didn’t know if Marik was going to show up too.

A few coughs left her, choking on the popcorn in her mouth at the thought. She attempted to dismiss her concerns with the fact that even if he did show up, there would be people around, he wasn’t going to try to hurt her. It did seem to alleviate her worries, until she recalled the way he embarrassed her just earlier that day. It drew a light scowl on her face, the memory was quickly followed by those of when she stuck herself in his room and the feel of his touch. Her chest puffed with a mix of frustration, anger and embarrassment as she began pacing around the room.

It took her a few moments to recollect herself and firmly remind herself that she was going to be there for Ishizu, she had to go, she couldn’t just continue locking herself in her room like this.

Shortly after the announcement of the duel, she heard some commotion in the hallway as people made their way to the arena to spectate. Penelope felt like an idiot when she realized that instead of safely joining the crowd, she listened with paranoia as they passed by and left, unsure herself why she had waited until it was silent again.

After a sigh at her own stupidity, the silence was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door, making her freeze only for a second. With some hesitation, she walked up to the door and looked through the peep hole, but her hopes of Ishizu being the one waiting outside for her to join her up to the duel arena weren’t met. The only thing her eyes were met with was the empty hallway.

Penelope struggled to get a better view, glancing out at different angles, until the sight of a purple iris coming into view from out of nowhere, gazing back into her own, nearly made her jump out of her skin. It was accompanied by the sound of a thud, but when he spoke up, Marik didn’t seem to be in any pain from his head hitting the door.

“Come on, come on, we’re gonna be laaaate.”

The low whispery way in which he said it, followed by a similar chuckle raised a few hairs on the back of her neck, he had already made her jump away from the door, and that prompted her to distance herself from it more.

“I’m only gonna say this once: go away!” she yelled from across the room in the most demanding tone she could muster

“So warm with him, but so cold with me. Nooo, that won’t do at all.”

After that, she could only hear the faint sounds of distancing footfalls, and while his last sentence concerned her, his first one puzzled her. Her brows furrowed thoughtfully, and as she waited for the coast to be clear, she considered that he may have been referring to her behavior towards the original Marik. It made her raise an eyebrow, it was curious and admittedly worrisome how he seemed to have a problem with the way she treated the original Marik during their friendship, and her aversion to himself.

A few more minutes later, she realized she was wasting time while Ishizu had likely already began the duel, so she cautiously made her way to the duel arena, looking over her shoulder more than she would’ve liked.

Once at the destination, she wasn’t surprised to see that the duel had indeed already started, albeit very recently. She waved a hand at Ishizu who waved her fingers back at her, in between which she held a card that she then placed on the field. As Penelope walked towards the observation area where Yugi and his friends were, she glanced to the opposite observation area and was thoroughly unpleasantly surprised to see Marik, whose lips stretched into a smirk as soon as their gazes met.

She walked a few feet past the group as she was busy throwing him a glare, which she quickly dropped as she turned to the other spectators and greeted each other.

During the next few minutes, her attention kept being divided between Ishizu’s duel and Marik’s near incessant stare at her, with that still present smirk on his face that, the longer she looked at, the more annoyed she became. Granted, his attention was drawn by the duel as well, but she kept noticing how it inevitably returned to her repeatedly.

A gust of chilly but refreshing night wind served as a reminder to relax, she took a deep breath and moved her hair behind her shoulders to allow the air to travel more freely across her skin. Doing her best to ignore Marik seemed to work, and as time passed, she wasn’t sure if she was becoming slightly sleepy due to the temporary slow pace of the duel, or the soothing night air, or both.

Her gaze jumped from Ishizu to Kaiba and occasionally the people in the group chattering next to her, purposefully avoiding looking at Marik, despite still feeling like she was being stared at. During the few times that she did glance at him, however, she noticed how he appeared increasingly more displeased, his smirk replaced by a look of mild annoyance, and she hoped it had nothing to do with her deliberately pretending that he didn’t exist anymore.

Her relaxed disposition had lasted shorter than she had hoped, suddenly interrupted by the sight of Marik stepping around the back of the duel ring, slowly approaching her. At first thought, the fact that his irritated expression was gone should have been some kind of silver lining, until it crossed her mind that he might be in a good mood again because he was planning something.

As he continued approaching, Penelope didn’t know how to react, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her scared yet again, so she refused to budge. She liked to believe she didn’t step back so she wouldn’t appear intimidated, but in reality, it was much less bravado and much more fear. Her glance dropped to his waist where she spotted the Millennium Rod attached to the belt loop on his side, and when he grew nearer, she could notice the others become wary as well, Yugi gently pushing Anzu behind him.

“What the hell do you want?” Jounouchi spoke in a clearly hostile tone, crossing his arms over his chest.

Marik seemed to barely acknowledge him, let alone answer his question, he just boldly stepped between them and Penelope, who was still as a statue with unease. Only when he put an arm around her, placing his hand on her hip and pushing her a few more feet away from the group, did she inhale sharply and realize she had been breathing less and less the closer he neared to her.

“Oi, what’s-“ Jounouchi protested, but Marik glanced at him over his shoulder with a look and tone of disinterest

“Quiet, you.”

“Penelope, are you alright?” Jounouchi turned to her, clearly concerned, and without thinking, she forced a smile as she turned back and spoke in a calm tone, yet with underlying stress that the other didn’t pick up on

“I’m fine, don’t worry.. O-oh no, looks like the effect of Swords of Revealing Light is over.” Her answer seemed to both somewhat placate and distract the concerned stares from the group. While she was now genuinely worried about Ishizu’s position in the duel, she was more worried about herself, due to Marik’s proximity, especially since he hadn’t removed his hand from her hip.

A slight, experimental attempt to pull away from him quickly proved that he wouldn’t have it, as his grip on her hip tightened briefly. She couldn’t help mentally berating herself for grabbing not only that relatively short skirt, but that blouse that didn’t fully reach the waistband of said skirt, leaving a sizeable portion of the skin on her lower abdomen exposed. Granted, she was in a rush when she was dressing up, but she told herself she should have remembered to change.

The touch of his fingers on her bare hip was making her uneasy enough, but when the coldness of the gold that encased his forearm brushed against the exposed skin of her lower back, she involuntarily jumped away. The few inches she managed to distance herself from him were near instantly taken back and then some, as he immediately pulled her back hard, until her side was pressed against his, and his fingers lightly dug into the flesh of her hip.

The brief but fast action drew Ishizu’s attention, whose eyes widened once she noticed where Marik was, and the unsettled expression on Penelope’s face. Her brows furrowed with concern when in response, Marik smirked at her as he lowered his head towards the other woman, hunching over until his chin rested on her shoulder, all while maintaining eye contact with his sister. Penelope did her best to wipe the unease from her face and mouthed to Ishizu that she was fine, not to worry. She had enough on her plate, she didn’t want her to worry about her, regardless of how worried she was about herself.

She wasn’t surprised to see his sister was unconvinced, but then Kaiba demanded her attention return to the duel, and when Marik spoke to Penelope, he did so loud enough for Ishizu to hear, but quiet enough to make it seem like he only wanted to talk.

“You know what strategy she’s going to use, right?”

Ishizu swallowed with unease at his behavior, but realized she didn’t have much of a choice but to focus on the duel and take some comfort in the fact that Marik couldn’t do much there, under the eyes of everyone, other than stand too close to Penelope and make her nervous. Reluctantly, she returned her attention to her opponent, after another reassuring message from her friend, but intended to throw a vigilant glance back at him whenever she could.

A squeeze of her hip reminded her that he asked her a question, but she just couldn’t focus on much else other than how invasive his proximity and touch felt, amplified more by the sound of his voice speaking so close to her ear, raising the hairs on the back of her neck

“I don’t.. Not..”

To some mild relief, he straightened up, and a small exhale left her when his head no longer rested on her shoulder.

“Kaiba thinks he’s going to destroy her deck… But _she’s_ going to do that to his.”

“Oh…” was all Penelope mustered to say under her breath

“What’s the matter, you’ve seen her crush her opponents with _that_ strategy many times before, haven’t you? Not even my weaker personality could counter that deck.”

Penelope wrapped her arms around herself, less so against the chilly wind and more as a self-defensive gesture, she tried to appear and sound calm and collected.

“Right… I remember.”

It seemed to work, she was far from comfortable, but she wasn’t stiff anymore and her voice remained steady.

Until she suddenly felt his hand slide from her hip and travel to the side, cupping the curve of her ass, and her composure immediately broke. As soon as she attempted to take a hurried step away, his hand returned to her hip, pulling her back hard but subtly enough to not draw attention.

“Listen to me very closely.” He leaned down and spoke next to her ear again “I’m only going to warn you once.” The feeling of his fingers slipping under the waistband of her skirt was alarming enough to make her want to take off, but the dead serious, downright threatening tone of his voice made her doubt that it was a good idea. His following words, however, fully convinced her “If you try to draw attention or signal that you need help in any way, in _any_ way, if you even _look_ at Ishizu with those pleading eyes… I’m going to carve her face worse than my back is, I’ll carve it to the bone, do you understand?”

His fingers dug into the flesh of her hip harder, as a way of accentuating his point.

Penelope felt dizzy, she found it some twisted irony that she accidentally leaned against him to keep her balance, because she believed him, she believed every word, she had no doubt that he was capable of doing horrible things to Ishizu if she didn’t do as he said.

Reflexively, a pained expression set on her face and she threw a quick glance towards the group of friends that were just far enough to not notice anything. The fact that the duel was much more compelling than before, drawing most of their attention, did not help either, and her chances of being noticed were further decreased when Marik pushed her another step away from them.

Immediately, she realized she was looking at them with a pleading look, and did her best to replace it with the most casual expression she could muster, aiming her gaze at the floor, while her heart began thumping even harder.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose! I.. please, we can just.. leave, we don’t have to stay here.”

She didn’t think her suggestion through, all she hoped was for a way to get out of this borderline hostage situation.

“Ooh? Are you inviting me to your room?” Marik chuckled, it made her sick to her stomach, but a part of her was glad that he didn’t sound threatening anymore.

“N-no, I’m just...”

“You just want to run screaming down the hallway and not stop until you’re back in your room.”

Penelope swallowed, if it wasn’t for his threat against Ishizu, she could see herself doing just that, perhaps with less screaming and faster running.

When his hand slid across her ass again, she didn’t know where a sudden slice of anger came from, she bit her lip and whispered under her breath with hostility.

“Okay, fine then, people are going to see how much of a creep you are, go ahead, embarrass yourself.”

She crossed her arms under her chest, too busy trying to suppress her frown to even notice the way she pushed her breasts up with the gesture, let alone notice that it drew Marik’s gaze there.

Within moments she understood that she spoke too soon, she realized that Marik’s hand sliding across her ass was on its way to his own cape. He grabbed the side edge of the material, pulling it across her back too, inserting a piece of the edge of the cloth in the tight space between her hip and the waistband of her skirt so that it would remain in place. Penelope’s eyes widened at the realization that what was going on behind her back was now completely obscured by the purple cape, and she didn’t even have time to start imagining her fears. They instantly became a reality when she felt his hand lift her skirt and squeeze her buttock tightly.

Her lips parted in shock and she slapped her hand over her mouth to not make a sound.

“Did you say something, plaything?” Marik’s mocking tone was adding insult to injury, but then it quickly shifted to sounding more serious “Put your hand down and look relaxed, Ishizu might look at us again.”

Penelope complied, she felt like she had no choice, she lowered her hand and did her best to put on and maintain a casual expression.

“What.. do you want?” she muttered between gritted teeth, trying hard to not react in any way to his hand massaging the plump flesh of her ass

“Are you sure you can handle my answer?” his tone seemed to mock her again, her eyes briefly clenched shut in irritation, and fright, and worry, and fear of what he may do next, she hated the cocktail of emotions stirring within her, all of them negative.

A reflexive flinch left her at the sensation of his hand traveling higher and grabbing the waistband of her thong, and when he pulled it halfway down her cheeks, she began feeling nauseated and dizzy again. It was the second time she had to lean against him to maintain her balance, the second time she found it to be some kind of a sick joke, considering how the thing she wanted the most was to get away from him, not get closer.

“Is this string what you call undergarments? Suits you well.” His voice dropped lower and had a breathier sound to it, it crossed her mind how he was possibly becoming aroused, and it took great effort to not scream for Ishizu that very second.

As if reading her mind, the woman diverted her attention from the increasingly risky duel and turned to her with a concerned, questioning expression.

Penelope swallowed, but she had no doubts that if she went against Marik’s demand, he was going to hurt his sister horribly, so she managed to fake a small smile, even give her a thumbs up and keep her voice steady as she spoke up

“You can do it! He has no idea what’s coming.”

Ishizu didn’t seem completely at ease, especially when she glanced over at Marik’s open mouthed smirk at her, yet not entirely aimed at her. She couldn’t tell what he appeared so pleased about, but she reminded herself that the man was unhinged, she couldn’t always apply logic to his behavior as she could to a normal person’s. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, Penelope was doing decently well, so after a reassuring nod back at her friend, she returned her attention to her opponent.

“That was good… Good girl.”

Penelope’s fake smile instantly deflated at that, she tried hard to not replace it with a scowl and bit her tongue as to not spill some choice words of her own.

A light slap on her lower cheek, as a kind of ridiculing, congratulating gesture in regards to her acting, made her blink in surprise and worsened her anger. A small silver lining was the fact that he then hooked his fingers on the waistband of her panties and rested them there, no longer kneading her flesh for the time being

“Why.. are you doing this?!” she spoke between gritted teeth, keeping her voice low but making little effort to mask the hostility in it

“What kind of stupid question is that?” his immediate answer took her by surprise, and she did not like his slightly irritated tone “I’m finally free again, after all these years. You can’t comprehend what it’s like drowning under the surface for so long, because you’re the sole owner of your body-… Tsk, don’t get me started.” The fact that he then began sounding calm again should have given her a sliver of relief, but his words did the opposite “I’m going to have fun at every opportunity, now that _I’m_ the sole owner of my body as well. And you… You’ve been taunting me for a long time, I’m not even close to being done with you.”

Penelope remained quiet for a few moments, suppressing a shudder at the thought of this Marik’s growing desires and hatred, as he watched her and the original Marik live relatively carefree for years and years. She drew in a deep long breath, and barely had time to fully exhale by the time she heard his mocking tone again

“By the way, I like the way your cheeks get red, you’re secretly enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Her jaw dropped at that, she hadn’t even come close to realizing it until he mentioned it, it was true, she did feel her cheeks warmer than usual, even in the chilly night air and occasional cold breeze.

She huffed with a mix of embarrassment and irritation

“Absolutely fucking not!”

Marik chuckled at the revulsion in her voice and then his smirk widened when an idea hit him.

“Are you sure? We might as well check.”

Penelope’s guard rose higher at those words, she didn’t know what he meant, it made her even more anxious. Seconds later, she wished she continued to remain ignorant; she did not like nor expect the form in which she received the answer.

Marik leaned down closer to her and snaked his hand between her thighs, whose muscles went rigid in response, and as it made its way upwards, her hand rose to cover her mouth as well, both in disbelief of what he was about to do, and out of fear that she wasn’t going to be able to remain completely silent.

When his fingers pushed aside her halfway on panties and made contact with her nether lips, she was horrified at the fact that it was actually happening, and also at the realization of how wet she was.

She expected Marik’s breathy chuckle, but not the way he rubbed his fingers between her slippery folds, and when the thought of how good it felt crossed her mind, she immediately banished it and felt so embarrassed that if shame was a liquid, she could drown the entire blimp under it.

“You’re so slick it came all the way down here, I don’t even need to check inside…” his tongue flicking against her shoulder made her flinch, his voice dropped even lower “But I want to.”

He grabbed her wrist surprisingly gently, and when he lowered her hand from her mouth, he liked the way her lips were parted open and she was only drawing in short, shallow breaths between them. Unbeknownst to her, he had to make an effort to not grab her by the neck and shove his tongue down her throat.

Her eyes, already staring at the floor into space as her panicked mind tried to deal with the situation, went wider when she suddenly felt the sensation of his fingers pushing upwards into her core. It was frustratingly easy thanks to how slippery she was, and while she felt disgusted with herself for her body’s physical reaction, she was surprised at how she wasn’t panicking more. She wasn’t as panicked, as disgusted, as sickened, as she felt she should be in a situation like this, and the realization made a wave of disgust and hate hit her, but directed at herself for not feeling as bad as she judged she should feel. Another part of her told her it was only because she was afraid, and while she wanted that to be the case, she didn’t know how much she really believed it.

Just as she began feeling the tip of his finger invade her, all of a sudden, his hand stopped moving. A few silent moments passed, and when Penelope dared to look up at him and saw the way his eye twitched, it added to her concern. It was bizarre that the sound of his disturbing chuckle calmed her down just a sliver, suggesting, at least in a normal person, that he wasn’t upset, but she was still very confused. He removed his hand from her nether lips, which gave her some relief, although the way he sloppily pulled her panties somewhat back up and wiped his fingers on the skin of her buttock was unpleasant. Despite how grateful she was that he wasn’t touching her anymore, she remained puzzled as to why he suddenly stopped without any apparent reason.

He didn’t straighten up fully until he pulled her directly in front of him, and she heard him mumble under his breath, seemingly to himself, albeit with both mild annoyance and amusement

“Damn it…”

Penelope blinked in confusion when he put each hand on her shoulders and pulled her back towards him. She didn’t resist, only discreetly pushed her hips slightly forward, so she could be in as less physical contact with him as possible.

A part of her wanted to ask questions, which she quickly dismissed, she told herself she should be glad it all stopped abruptly, and she was, regardless of the reason. She only hoped she hadn’t accidentally done something wrong in his eyes and will be held at fault for it soon.

In the following minutes, despite Marik’s admittedly not tight grip on her shoulders as he remained behind her, she could at least direct some of her attention back to the duel.

“I activate the Trap Card, Reversal of the Worlds of the Living and Dead!” Ishizu’s declaration made her perk up, and Marik’s grip on her shoulders slightly tightened with excitement.

It was somewhat strange to see the confidence stripped so much and so abruptly from the always confident Seto Kaiba. For a few moments he even looked downright frightened, especially when he brought out the few cards he had in his graveyard to use as all of his remaining cards for the duel. She couldn’t blame him, considering how Ishizu had virtually destroyed his deck.

“How scary, sister. Heh, this duel is basically already over.”

She heard Marik’s voice above her, then, she was taken aback by the pleasant surprise of him simply letting go of her and stepping towards the exit.

* * *

As soon as Penelope locked herself in her room, she wanted to cry; she felt a few tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she threw her clothes on the floor and hopped in the shower.

Much to her chagrin, she couldn’t confuse the water flowing down on her with her tears, she could tell that there were far too few of the latter for her taste, and she couldn’t help the feeling of self-disgust that overcame her. A few sobs left her, but she wasn’t sure how forced they were, and she couldn’t ignore the way she felt more irritated and disgusted and frustrated with herself than anything else. There was repulsion and anger towards Marik and what he had done to her as well, especially right under the noses of everyone, without her being able to even hint that she needed help. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t _enough_ disgust, and when the thought crossed her mind that maybe she was exaggerating, that her feelings were enough and valid, she just began feeling confused on top of everything.

Her wide eyes just stared at the white tiles of the shower wall as her arms wrapped around herself and the hot water continued to flow down her body, all the while she tried to make sense of what was going on inside her. The possibility that perhaps some part of her was seeing some part of the original Marik in him rose in her mind, followed by a dismissive frown, it didn’t make sense since she never even dreamed of Marik doing anything like that to her, there was no doubt about it.

When she left the shower, it was with a sense of defeat and almost numbness. The thought of why Marik’s Millennium Rod began glowing near the end of the duel crossed her mind as well, and while it was bizarre, she just couldn’t afford thinking too much about that.

She did remember, however, to visit Ishizu, who was surprisingly at peace with losing the duel, despite it going directly against the future she predicted through the Millennium Item she held so much faith in. She seemed more concerned with Penelope’s state of being, who reassured her that she was fine and nothing had happened, and she seemed to believe her after a little bit of convincing.

A sigh left her as she exited Ishizu’s room, she felt guilty for lying to her, especially about something her brother had done, if they could even consider him her brother. However, not only would she find it very uncomfortable to tell her what happened, she also didn’t want her to worry and stress about her wellbeing, she had been through enough herself and she didn’t want to add to her list of troubles.

Penelope felt a slight sense of irritation when the question of whether her decision and thoughts were truly right arose, she felt too drained to debate with herself, so she did her best to dismiss it and at least make a decent attempt at sleeping.

* * *

It was well over midnight, well over an hour of twisting and turning without even coming close to falling asleep. A deep exhale of both mental and emotional exhaustion left her, she expected this to happen, but it was nonetheless unpleasant. With her patience running lower, she considered giving up on sleep that night altogether and busying herself with something else, at least until the morning when she expected to finally be exhausted enough to pass out.

Reluctantly, she got out of bed, but felt disinterested in anything she attempted to do to pass the time, be it reading, or movies, or video games, or browsing the internet, she couldn’t engage with any for more than a few minutes.

She groaned with frustration at both her inability to distract herself and her failure to fall asleep despite her tiredness, and gently tossed the laptop off her lap, onto the bed. Her own body followed, stretching back down on the mattress herself and allowing her eyelids to fall closed, which, despite their heaviness, sleep still seemed out of reach.

The bed covers were slightly cold to the touch, just enough to feel relaxing under her warm skin, she laid there for what felt like too long, when in reality it was less than a few minutes; she was too mentally tired to put up much of a fight against the unpleasant recent memories that raced through her mind, but then one of them made the speeding train of thoughts screech to a halt.

The realization of the possibility that earlier, Marik had suddenly stopped touching her without any apparent reason because he was becoming visibly aroused made her eyes shoot open at the ceiling. She rolled over on her side as her hand rose to her mouth, she didn’t want to believe it, but from what she could remember, including the way he cussed at seemingly nothing and made her stand in front of him for a while, it all appeared to make sense.

Her hand fell limp and she shook her head, doing her best to immediately dismiss the realization. It was followed by another one, the frustrating realization of the way she suddenly felt even more awake and alert after the shock of that revelation.

Reluctantly, she stood up and put her night robe on, well aware that her chances of falling asleep had gotten considerably worse, she decided she needed some fresh air.

The short trip through the airship was surprisingly pleasant, in another situation, she would have enjoyed the low lit, sleepy atmosphere, under the soothing, constant hum of the propeller engines. She enjoyed it as much as she could as she made her way to the top of the airship, where the duel arena was, where she could get some air, some refreshing cool night wind on her face.

At least that was the plan, until she heard a voice she somewhat recognized as she approached the entrance to the arena.

_Is that.. that Bakura guy? What’s he doing here, who’s he talking t-_

Penelope’s heart then sank at the sound of the much more familiar, dreadful voice of Marik, she stopped dead in her tracks for a few moments. She couldn’t believe it, all she wanted was a minute of fresh air in the hopes that it would help her sleep after what Marik had done to her, and instead, she bumped into him again, the thought crossed her mind of how it seemed like some kind of sick joke.

Discreetly, she snuck close to the doorway and remained mostly hidden behind it, glancing out occasionally, and then more when she noticed that Marik’s back was facing her, so she was less likely to get spotted. She knew it was best to just turn around and go back to her room, but she saw the writhing darkness in the air and felt the looming danger in the atmosphere, it was another shadow game.

A sigh of sadness left her, she didn’t entertain the idea that Marik could lose for longer than a few moments, she didn’t think there was anything that could withstand the Winged Dragon of Ra, let alone defeat it. It was just going to be another victim.

By the end of the duel, she wished she hadn’t been proven right, it was especially disturbing to see Marik’s opponent’s body become swallowed by the darkness itself. She shuddered at the thought, and wondered why he hadn’t done that against Mai as well, then dismissed it, she didn’t want to think of Marik’s reasons for choosing how to torture and kill his opponents.

She didn’t know what Yugi and Anzu were doing there at that hour, but she nearly jumped out of her skin when they walked up behind her and spoke her name. Fortunately, they hadn’t made her presence known to Marik, and she only stayed long enough to see him crouch to pick up the Millennium Ring left behind by the vanquished opponent. After that, she began making her way back to her room, only pausing briefly to hear what Yugi and Marik spoke.

As soon as the door of her room locked behind her, she threw herself on the bed and buried her face in the pillow. Once the feeling of the lack of air became too much, she abruptly sat up and grabbed her phone, the sight of the late hour barely registering, her mind was too busy racing yet again, with more concerns.

Her head lowered to rest on her palms, she didn’t know Bakura, he seemed like just another contestant, so she wondered why he was dueling Marik at that hour, it wasn’t an official duel. Regardless of the reason, the shadow game combined with his defeat ensured that he was swallowed by the darkness, yet another victim. She considered going to Ishizu to tell her what happened, then dismissed the thought, realizing that she was likely sleeping at that hour. Even if she wasn’t, she didn’t feel comfortable leaving her room so soon after Marik finished that shadow duel, she didn’t want the risk of bumping into him again, even for a moment in the hallway.

Curled up on her side on the bed, wide awake despite feeling increasingly tired, she checked the time again to see that less than twenty minutes had passed, even though it felt like an hour of trying to slow her mind down.

It seemed like things couldn’t get any worse for the night. And then a sudden knock on the door made her flinch and freeze.


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of the knock of the door was abrupt and heavy, her eyes shot open in surprise, but she didn’t want more tension, she couldn’t tolerate it at such an already sensitive time, she needed to see who it was immediately.

Rushing her tired body out of bed, she took several large steps to the door and nearly slammed against it in her hurry to end the unpleasant mystery. As soon as she looked through the peep hole, however, she felt her heart sink into her stomach.

The sight of Marik leaning on his arm against her door was unsavory enough by itself, but the fact that he wore an annoyed expression on his face made it considerably worse. She stared at him for a few moments, her brows rising in anxiety as she watched his lower with more impatience, then flinched when he used his fist to bang on the door.

Unsure if she accidentally made a sound, she covered her mouth to be certain she wouldn’t as she verified that the door was firmly locked. Taking a few steps back as quietly as she could, the idea struck her that perhaps the best plan of action was to get back in bed and pretend she was asleep the whole time. If he had a problem with her in the morning, she could say she hadn't heard a thing in her deep sleep.

Back in bed, she quietly covered herself with the blanket from head to toe and curled up on her side, hugging her knees to her chest; she tried not to react to the next sounds against the door, not even emotionally, and forced her eyes closed until it all went quiet again.

Once she felt like she was in the clear, a breath she didn’t know she had been holding left her and she felt her tense muscles relax. A wave of regret hit her, she told herself she shouldn’t have hidden herself and watched the duel between him and Bakura, she shouldn’t have left her room earlier altogether. She didn’t know what Marik wanted this time, but the fact that he looked irritated, especially so soon after she did something she wished she could take back made her all the more nervous.

As minutes passed, they felt like hours to Penelope, she wanted more than ever to sleep, for everything to just go dark for a while so she could catch a break from all her worries and unease. Ever so often, her eyes would keep opening by themselves, each time adding more and more to her frustration at her inability to sleep. She started feeling trapped, she couldn’t sleep, but she couldn’t bring herself to exit her room, too scared of the possibility of bumping into a certain someone again.

In a sudden brief fit of frustration, she abruptly sat up and tossed the blanket off herself, which was followed by her night robe, landing on the nearest armchair in a pile. When she curled back on her side facing the windowed wall, she couldn’t bring herself to care to fix the short nightgown that had ridden up her legs, partially exposing her behind, if anything, she had to resist the urge to fling that off of her as well.

Her face scrunched up at the cocktail of negative emotions stirring in her stomach, each and every one of them seemingly doing their best to make sure she couldn’t relax even mentally, let alone fall asleep peacefully.

More minutes passed, she didn’t know how many, until the presence of a certain sound suddenly made her suspect that she had somehow fallen asleep and was now dreaming.

The familiar sound of her door sliding open was surreal, it was so realistic and vivid, a lot more so than what she experienced it her regular dreams, it was even accompanied by the light that would come from the hallway. It didn’t take long for the possibility that she wasn’t dreaming to surface in her exhausted mind, and when it did, she felt her breath stop and her heart skip a beat.

She didn’t expect to have that much trouble turning around, her body felt even heavier than before, but this time with dread instead of sleepiness and exhaustion. Every inch covered as she rolled over felt as if it was travelled in slow motion, and when she finally gazed at the door, she desperately wished for everything to be a dream, even though it would be considered a nightmare.

The shadow of Marik’s silhouette stretched ominously into the privacy of her room, his body lit only from behind, obscuring his face in darkness, only slightly lit by the dim glow of the Eye of Wedjat on his forehead. It only added to her concern, since she was unable to see his expression and get any hint of what mood he might have been in. When he stepped inside and the light began disappearing as the door slid closed, for a moment, she felt as if she could start crying, but she suppressed it, even though it felt as if she was a lamb in a cage and a wolf suddenly walked inside it.

Before all the light disappeared, her eyes managed to catch sight of the small rectangular object in his hand. She recognized it, it looked like one of the higher security access cards that certain people on the airship held, like the one she’d seen on the doctor that visited Rishid and Mai. As he placed it in his pocket, she could only hope nobody was hurt in the process of him obtaining it.

The sound of his voice made her flinch, despite the fact that his tone was rather neutral and emotionless, and his question only puzzled and concerned her

“Where is Rishid?”

Penelope blinked in confusion, realizing how dry her eyes were, not even remembering how long it had been since the last time she blinked in her disturbed state.

“W-wha.. what are you talking about?...” she struggled to lift her voice above a whisper, she didn’t move until Marik began taking a few steps to the side, but also closer to her bed, and she abruptly sat up

“What do you mean, what do you want with him?” her tone raised, holding a mix of urgency, concern towards the man he inquired about, and hostility towards the one she spoke to.

She didn’t know if his huff of amusement concealed something else, but she did not like his answer

“Sometimes I am merciful… I’ve been trying to end his misery.”

Penelope’s eyes widened in fear

“Been… trying?” she repeated almost automatically as her mind attempted to make sense of his words, but it didn’t need to, since he didn’t take long to answer her

“What is this now, the third time?” the hint of annoyance in his voice didn’t escape her “Every time there’s an interruption, and now he’s not in that room at all anymore.” When he took another step towards her, she shot up from the bed as if a fire suddenly ignited under her. Marik didn’t react, only continued in a similar, slightly irked tone “Where did you and Ishizu take him?”

The question made Penelope feel weak in her knees, she instantly knew she was in even worse trouble than she anticipated. Even though she genuinely didn’t have a clue about any of that, especially Rishid being gone from his room, she knew Marik wasn’t going to believe her.

Still, as dreadful as she felt, she also knew she had to at least make an attempt, the best one she could, to convince him. Even though her eyes were beginning to get used to the darkness and allow her to look into his eyes, she found it difficult to maintain her gaze as she put on the most sincere tone she could muster

“Okay, Marik… I have to make this very clear, look at me. I am being completely honest right now, I swear to you, I swear to god, to anything you want, I had _nothing_ to do with any of that. I had _no_ clue, I didn’t know you were trying to..” she did her best to suppress the animosity in her tone “hurt Rishid. Let alone that someone moved his unconscious body, okay? I just.. Please, I swear I didn’t know about any of that, I had nothing to do with any of that.”

“Hmmm…”

The fact that she could pick up hints of amusement in that contemplative hum added to the sickness in her stomach, she suspected he liked how desperate to be believed she appeared, and how frightened she was at the possibility of that not happening.

“Where were you earlier?” the sudden question made her train of thought stumble over itself, she immediately realized that telling the truth would be dangerous, and if she lied, the risk of him finding out was significant as well.

The silence that fell in the next few moments, which felt far too long for her liking, was deafening, she could only hear her own thumping heartbeat in it. The Eye of Wedjat tilting as he cocked his head to the side expectantly drew her attention, she forced herself to speak up, no matter how difficult it was to tell the truth

“I was.. not in my room for a while, I just couldn’t sleep.”

“You couldn’t sleep, so you came to watch me obliterate that fool and feed him to the darkness.” He said, as if adding to her statement, and Penelope shook her head, even though some of his words were true. She did watch a part of that duel, even though she didn’t know he was aware of her presence there, and she was suddenly very grateful that she didn’t try to lie to him and say she hadn’t been outside her room. “And then you ran off to dear sister, and hid Rishid away together.”

At that, she felt the urge to speak up strictly again

“As I _said_ , I couldn’t sleep, I… yes I saw you duel him, I just wanted to get some fresh air so I went up to the arena, I.. I stayed a while, okay, but then I left and went right back to my room, I swear that’s the truth, I have no idea where Rishid is and now I’m even more worried about him because of that.”

Before her gaze dropped to the floor, something else caught her eye, thanks to her vision growing more accustomed to the darkness. Her gawking at the Millennium Ring hanging from Marik’s neck was interrupted by his chuckle, he noticed her wide eyed expression

“Do you like my spoils of war?”

Penelope quickly averted her gaze, but her brows furrowed with concern and hostility

“Why the hell did you do that to that guy?..”

At that, Marik sounded almost bored, as if he didn’t want to bother with an answer or explain himself, but he did so anyway

“Don’t paint me the criminal so much for this one, he got in my way to Rishid, agreed to a shadow game, and I crushed him, simple as that.”

Penelope blinked in surprise, Marik had no issues accepting responsibility for his previous crimes, so it would be peculiar that he would deny some of it now, it made her lean towards accepting that he was telling the truth.

“Well then…” when he started in a casual tone again, a part of Penelope hoped so much he was preparing to leave, only for that hope to be crushed and then some “If you don’t know where Rishid is, maybe dear sister will have something to tell me.”

The fact that he solely said that to see her reaction didn’t even cross her mind, she acted on impulse, as soon as he began turning towards the door, she rushed to him and grabbed his gold encased wrist

“No, don’t!”

Marik instantly stopped the pretend intent of paying a dangerous visit to Ishizu, ignoring her grip on his wrist and instead, wrapping his arm around her back. More alarm bells began ringing in Penelope’s mind when she felt herself being pulled towards him hard, she could only put her forearms up against his chest to force some distance between them as he kept his hold strong. The cold, solid shapes of the Millennium Ring pressing hard against her skin were unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as the proximity of his voice, she didn’t look up at him.

“Don’t worry, I’m just playing with you.” He did have a playful tone, but Penelope did not find any of it amusing at all.

_Yeah, you’ve been doing that a lot lately, you bastard…_

“That stubborn bitch would put up too much of a fight anyway, and I don’t have the privacy of making her squeal here, too many people to hear the screams and see the blood…”

A horrifying image arose in her mind at that, enough to make her guard lower for just a moment, which she regretted, as he took the opportunity to pull her ever so slightly closer. Her breath was beginning to audibly grow quick and shallow, displaying her panic. She didn’t want to make how uncomfortable she was so obvious, but she didn’t want to ask him what else he wanted either, afraid that she would live to regret the question.

“Let’s not forget…” those words felt like another heavy rock placed on her shoulders, she immediately wondered what else he possibly could want. As far as she could tell, she had more or less gotten away from the danger of being held responsible for Rishid’s unconscious body being moved, the last thing she wanted was for Marik to have another problem with her. The pause before he continued felt too long, and when it finally ended, her fear became a reality. “You saw me reveal Ra’s ability at the end of the duel, didn’t you?”

Penelope’s eyes widened at the recent memory of Marik fusing with Ra, transferring his life points into the beast’s attack, allowing him to obliterate his opponent in one turn. It was true she had never seen that before, the original Marik himself didn’t know about that ability, but it was also true that she wasn’t supposed to see that in the first place. It was a strategy that she assumed he intended to use against Yugi or Kaiba, and, obviously, it was meant to remain a secret until as late as possible, so that his opponents couldn’t come up with a counter strategy.

In the meantime, she hadn’t noticed Marik wasn’t actively pulling her towards him anymore, only kept his arm in place in case she tried to distance herself, but unknowingly, she continued to keep her arms against his chest.

When she finally looked up at him, she was ever so slightly relieved to see an expectant, almost amused expression, instead of a threatening one, but she still whispered and did her best to sound as sincere and convincing as she could

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I swear, I won’t even entertain the idea of telling anyone what I saw, okay? I’m not that stupid.. When the time to duel them comes, if they were to know that ability and have a counter to it ready, you’d know that I’m to blame, right? So not a peep from me..”

She grew increasingly uncomfortable when he only continued to look down at her with a small yet sly smirk, but it was nothing compared to when he suddenly began leaning down towards her. Acting on instinct, she immediately began struggling to break free from the hold of his arm around her back. It only lasted a few seconds, she didn’t know why he abruptly let go of her altogether, and even though it made her suddenly take some big steps back and nearly stumble over her own feet, she was glad to finally have some distance between them again, feeling like she could breathe freely once more.

The slight pain of hitting the back of her heels against the frame of the bed registered to her, but it was quickly drowned out by the premature joy of seeing Marik turn his head and look towards the door. It took some effort to keep the relief from showing on her face, even more so as he began walking towards the exit. Each step he took felt like a weight being lifted off her shoulders, over and over, until she felt her body relax, and realized how tense she had been the entire time, all the while her breath flowed in and out of her with refreshing ease.

Since she was right next to her bed, the urge to allow her tired body to fall back on it was great, but she resisted it, eager to do that just seconds later, as soon as Marik left the room and she locked the door behind him. A semi-serious thought of perhaps pushing something big and heavy against the door once she was alone crossed her mind, it didn’t seem too ridiculous anymore after what just happened, after seeing how he was able to obtain a security card that just unlocked her door without an issue. She parted her lips to let out a deep, silent exhale of relief as she watched Marik’s hand reach for the device on the wall that operated the door.

Then both her breath and heart momentarily froze when he locked the door.

The sight of him turning back to face her after the small light on the device flashed red two times in a row, indicating that it had securely locked the sliding door shut, it was both surreal and nauseating. The understanding that he hadn’t been planning on leaving hit her like a freight train and she could’ve sworn it emotionally hurt more than that would hurt physically.

When he began taking a few steps towards her, she instinctively attempted to step back herself, only to realize she was already right up against the edge of her bed with nowhere to back away.

“Is there anything else?..” her voice came out as a weak whisper, he said nothing, silently removing the Millennium Rod from its place on the belt loop on his hip. Only her eyes followed it through the air as he lightly threw it, landing it on the soft armchair, on top of the night robe that she previously tossed there herself in frustration.

She wanted to move, but she could already feel her muscles stiffen with fear and concern again, her mind raced with theories and possibilities of what in the world he could still want; she tried to come up with a reason as to why he was still there and forced herself to speak above a whisper

“What is it? Is it the thing about Rishid? Marik, I told you, I had nothing to do with that, y-you can hurt me if you want but it would really be a waste of time because I have no information, I have no idea who moved him or where.” It was difficult to say those words, but she was becoming desperate, she felt it was necessary to make it as obvious as she could that she had no reason to lie.

Marik took another step towards her, as if only to see her reaction, and she did react, she spoke again, as if on cue

“Or is it about Ra? Come on, that one’s even more obvious” a brief, thoroughly unamused, thoroughly nervous chuckle left her “I’m well aware I’d be found out and pay for it if I told anyone about that ability.” Her growing panic was increasingly more difficult to hide, but she couldn’t bring herself to care

Much to her chagrin, her words seemed to have no effect at all, it only added to her confused dread to see the amused look on his face as he took another step closer to her, it reminded her too much of a lion circling and approaching a wounded gazelle.

What took her off guard, however, was him suddenly reaching for the small golden chain attached to the Ghoul robe he wore as a cape, detaching one end of it, then throwing the entire material onto the armchair, over the Millennium Rod.

A flinch left Penelope, her hands jumped to her chest in a subconscious gesture of self-defense. Seeing Marik without his cape, combined with the feeling of the light sweat from her palms on her chest, brought about the abrupt, unpleasant realization of her own wardrobe. Thanks to the mix of fear and nervousness she’d been swimming in ever since he made himself an unwanted visitor to her room, she had completely forgotten that the entire time she wore nothing but her short, partially transparent night gown. Suddenly, she felt exposed, which made her even more uncomfortable.

“Please.. please just tell me what you need to know, because I don’t think there’s anything else I can tell you, because I already told you the truth, I swear, I don’t know how many more times to say-“ she started again in a clearly distressed voice, surprised that she got interrupted, and even more surprised by the words that interrupted her

“Will you shut up about those things already..”

Penelope blinked in confusion, a puzzled expression set on her face as her mind began racing with an entirely different set of issues. Her gaze dropped to the floor in contemplation and her hands lowered slightly. She didn’t look at him when he took another step towards her, even though her body tensed up further, she just couldn’t stop thinking, trying to come up with an answer as to why he was still in her room, if there was nothing left for them to discuss.

And then the thought finally fully surfaced.

_You know why._

It nearly felt painful when it managed to emerge, she already suppressed it a number of times. Just as she banished the thought again, she was quickly proven to be in the wrong, proven that her worst suspicion was true, regardless of how much she tried to deny it because she couldn’t handle it.

The Millennium Ring around Marik’s neck clinked softly like a cluster of wind chimes when he removed his shirt and dropped it on the floor, it made her wide eyed gaze slowly return to him. The sight of him half naked while she was locked in her room with him was foreboding enough by itself, but seeing his tongue slither out of his mouth and lick his lips as his eyes traveled down her body threatened to send her into full blown panic mode.

What did finally send her into that mode was seeing his hand reach for his belt buckle.

Instantly, Penelope dashed to the bedside table where her phone was; she didn’t manage to hold it in her hand for more than a second until Marik pounced on her, ripping it out of her grip and shoving it in the deep pocket on the side of his pant leg.

In the struggle, she managed to land with her lower body off the bed, on her knees, and her upper body pressed against the bed by Marik’s arm on her back.

A panicked whimper left her, at that point she didn’t know what else to do other than scream for help. She only managed to get half of the word out before Marik’s hand hurriedly covered the entire lower half of her face.

She didn’t know if she found it better or worse that instead of sounding angry, he leaned down to her and let out a breathy chuckle close to her ear, sending cold chills down her back that was already slightly damp with cold sweat.

“Don’t get me wrong, plaything, I _want_ you to struggle.”

He kept his hand firmly over her mouth as he pulled her up on the bed, making her kneel on the mattress while he pushed her against the window on the wall, only moving his index finger above her nose so she could breathe.

Once she could draw breath into her lungs again, she could allow herself to consider his words, which immediately made her stomach knot, the feeling made worse as he continued, pressing her against the window with his body and speaking close to her ear.

“That’s right, you’re going to entertain me by fighting hard in vain.”

The sensation of his hand slowly traveling up her leg until it reached the hem of her nightgown made her whimper again, which was followed by a muffled louder noise when he lifted it above her hips and roughly pulled her panties down to around her thighs

“But we won’t have any screaming.” He accentuated his point with a rather harsh slap on her exposed ass, her reaction suppressed by the hand over her mouth “To put it simply, I might snap and kill anyone who barges in while we’re having fun.”

Penelope ignored his chuckle, too disturbed by his words and the images they invoked in her mind, it seemed crazy, but she couldn’t put it past him. She was inclined to believe him, or at the very least, if he wouldn’t hurt someone on the spot, there were plenty of other ways he could make her pay for going against his demand and screaming for help.

Too lost in her racing mind, trying to come up with a solution to the situation that excluded external help, she didn’t notice him move her hair aside, and then she lightly jumped at the feeling of his tongue sliding up her neck, towards her ear.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this, after all, so who knows how I might react.”

Out of all the disturbing things about him, one of the less serious ones she realized she hated the most was that breathy voice he spoke in, she couldn’t help feeling that, at least in this situation, it sounded like he was getting off to what he was doing to her, to how terrified and helpless she was.

“Mmmm, might even chop Ishizu’s tongue off if you scream, wouldn’t that be fitting and fun?”

She couldn’t think of less suitable words for such an act, and feeling his lips on her shoulder made her want to somehow merge herself with that window just so she could get away from him, while the coldness of the Millennium Ring against her back added to her physical discomfort.

“So then, have we come to an understanding? No screaming.”

Penelope swallowed, she could only nod her head gently, then drew a deep inhale after he removed his hand from her face. What physical relief she got from that was quickly removed and then some when his hand suddenly grabbed her breast in an uncomfortably tight grip, pulling a pained whine out of her. Overly paranoid that she might had made too much noise, her own hand rose to her mouth and covered it to silence herself, but it was lowered by Marik.

“No, no, let me make this more clear for you.” She already didn’t like what she heard, her suspicion confirmed when he continued as he kneaded the sensitive flesh of her breast, made all the more uncomfortable when the cold gold around his forearms made contact with her warm skin “You’re going to whine..” she wanted to, at the unpleasant sensation of her nipple pinched between his fingers, but suppressed it “You’re going to whimper..” he tried to turn her head for her to look at him, but she quickly resisted and turned away. Looking down and out the window gave her an odd sense of detachment that was very fleeting “You’re going to squeal and moan like a whore when I’m inside you, just you wait.”

She didn’t know what made her want to run more, his words or the suddenly rougher way in which he spoke and squeezed her. Immediately, she realized they were nothing compared to when, without warning, his hand pushed her legs apart as it forced between them and his fingers rubbed against her clit.

An involuntary moan mixed with a squeal of surprise left her as soon as he pressed her button, but she immediately slapped her hand over her mouth to silence herself and looked down out the window again. It wasn’t allowed to mute her for longer than a second, Marik roughly grabbed it and pulled it away from her face, she still couldn’t get used to the feeling of hearing him chuckle at her struggle so close to her

“I get the feeling that you think you’re going to get through this by staying quiet and looking away, do you really think you can keep pretending that I don’t exist?”

Penelope’s eyes closed, she refused to give him anything, not a sound or any kind of reaction.

“Look at me!”

She jumped when he suddenly yelled, too close to her, too aggressively, but slowly turned her head halfway to glance at him for a few seconds. The irritated look on his face did not inspire her any confidence that she had decent chances of getting out of the situation, and when his fingers wrapped around her throat in a firm grip, pulling her closer to his face, she didn’t know where the sudden spark of anger that took over her came from.

“I fucking hate you with a passion.”

She made no effort to hide the hostility in her voice nor the frown on her face, she fully expected antagonizing him to be a terrible idea, but she couldn’t help it, it hadn’t been long since he had replaced her dear friend, and in that short time he already filled her with so much dread and anxiety and concern for herself and everyone around.

It felt good to finally express her animosity, however, it only lasted a few moments. She did not expect the irked look on his face to be replaced by a demented grin at her remark, but was a lot more surprised when he spun her around, pressing her back against the cold window then roughly slamming his lips against hers.

Completely caught off guard, it took her a moment to start struggling and trying to push him back. Her moderately long fingernails dug into the surprisingly hard muscle of his chest, she knew Marik was fit, but she never had any reason to touch his shirtless chest before. She didn’t want to return the kiss, although she didn’t know how much of a good job at that she was doing in her struggle, and when he suddenly bit her lower lip hard, a brief pained muffled scream left her. Failing to suppress it resulted in instant regret, as he quickly took the opportunity to force his tongue into her mouth.

She tried to use what little movement of her legs she had to land a knee between his, but it was difficult in that position, and he quickly took notice of it. She didn’t mean to moan when he grabbed and parted her legs, forcing himself between them and pressing his groin against hers. The sound was suppressed thanks to how busy he kept her mouth, for a moment she wondered why he kept his hands on her hips, allowing her to keep trying in vain to push him away.

Remembering the fact that he wanted her to put up a futile fight brought an odd weakness to her muscles, she didn’t like the feeling of defeat that came over her, but she couldn’t help it, she suddenly dropped her struggle nearly entirely.

Marik got out of her mouth, a string of saliva stretching between his tongue and her bottom lip, her hands didn’t even push him anymore, only rested against his chest. She was cognizant of the hotness in her cheeks but couldn’t bring herself to care much about it, and she didn’t want to look up at him, although she could already notice his pleased smirk in her peripheral vision.

“What’s the matter, already out of steam?”

She bit her tongue to not make a sound when his hands slid up the small of her waist and cupped her breasts surprisingly gently, then had to make a greater effort to not physically react to the sensation of his lips and tongue on her neck

“D-do you realize-“ her hands gripped his shoulders, feeling some of her desire to fight back return, even though she noticed her effort to push him back wasn’t budging him

“Hmmm?” the inquisitive sound he made on her neck was low, sending vibrations against her skin

“Do you realize that what you’re doing is not only hurting me.. You’re hurting Marik as well, in more than one way. T-this is his body, he would never use it to hurt me like this…”

The abrupt loud sound of his maniacal laughter in the crook of her neck made her question if it really was a good idea to bring that up

“Trust me, I thought of that before!” a rather hard bite on her neck forced a pained cry out of her “But as much as I’d like to hurt that weakling, the fact that he’s never coming back makes this body completely and permanently mine. Don’t worry though, there’s other ways to make him hurt, I’ll see about making sure he’ll know what I’ve done to you.”

Penelope felt her eyes begin to moisten at that, but did her best to suppress it, she didn’t want to give him more satisfaction at seeing how upset she was.

“You keep doing that!” she made an effort to keep her voice steady and summon some confident hostility in it “Stop calling him things like that.”

Noticing him momentarily stop moving suddenly made her suspect that perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to say, and then was convinced of it when his hand slipped between her legs and pressed hard right against her clit

“And why shouldn’t I? It’s true, after all. Tsk, enough about him, haven’t you indulged and spoiled and satisfied him enough for all those years?”

The fact that he sounded increasingly angered added to her concern, but then the way his fingers began to rub her clit drew a whiny moan out of her, she bit her lip to cut herself off and retorted in an unsteady voice

“So what, a-are you jealous or something?”

“Maybe I am!”

Mentally and emotionally, she was thoroughly unprepared when he suddenly forced two fingers inside her; without thinking, she pressed her lips against his shoulder so that her squeal came out muffled. Physically, on the other hand, she was horrified at how easily his fingers slid in, thanks to how wet she was, unbeknownst to her. She was also horrified to notice that Marik’s irritated demeanor deflated because of that same realization.

His chuckle made her already abundant shame double, she thought she knew what he was going to say, at least approximately, and she did not look forward to hearing it

“Once again, so slick under my touch, why do you even put up the act that you don’t want it?”

As much as she dreaded hearing his first words, she expected them, but she couldn’t contain her ire upon hearing the rest. As soon as he spoke the rhetorical question, she grunted and punched against his shoulders and pushed with all her might. It had a minor but noticeable effect, which was quelled by his amused reaction, and more so by the way he firmly wrapped his other arm around her back only to push his fingers deeper inside her and begin moving them in and out at a pace she was unprepared for.

She was reluctant to cover her mouth with her hand to keep quiet, knowing he didn’t appreciate it when she did that, but once his thumb started roughly rubbing against her clit too, she knew she had low chances of staying silent. Biting her lip as hard as she could without causing damage was the best she could hope for, her whines and moans escaped her partially muffled while she pressed her forehead against his shoulder and made the most pitiful attempt at pushing him back. She didn’t think she could feel more embarrassed and uncomfortable, until she heard the sound made by Marik’s fingers repeatedly penetrating and rubbing against her soaked flesh, realizing she had only gotten more wet and physically loose with arousal thanks to the unwanted stimulation. It didn’t escape his ears either, and hearing his excited chuckle again made her want to simply disappear in thin air out of shame.

“On one hand, I love how much of a slippery slut you become for me.” She didn’t know what disturbed her more, his words, or the way his breathy voice spoke right next to her ear, until he continued, and she decided the former was far more unsettling “On the other, I would’ve liked to stick it in you dry and hear you scream, would you have bled on my cock, hmmm?”

Her cry in response was a mixture of fear, repulsion, slight pain from the stretching of her slick yet not fully ready canal, and worst of all as far as she was concerned, pleasure from the same source; she hated the way he combined things she despised with things she would normally enjoy.

A gasp left her when he suddenly retracted his fingers from her, she quickly banished the thought of how empty she felt inside without them, and he lifted his hand up to her face.

“Look at what you’ve done to yourself…” Marik spoke with an eerily playful, partly mocking tone, and illuminated by the moonlight, she only caught a glance of the way his fingers and part of his palm glistened with her wetness before she turned her head to the side to look away in shame. She still saw his tongue in her peripherals slither out of his mouth and dart over his fingers before landing on her cheek and traveling down her neck while his hand groped her breast, rubbing her wetness on the sensitive skin and nipple.

As violating as it all was, she told herself that the least he could do was shut up, stop speaking, since every time he said something, he angered her, or made her feel more embarrassed about her body’s involuntary reactions to his touch, or both.

“Now look at what you’ve done to _me_ …” he spoke in a hoarse voice, and it didn’t take her long to realize she now had bigger problems than him verbally embarrassing her.

Without warning, Marik grabbed her thigh, parting her legs wider and pressed his groin against hers. The sensation of his rigid cock straining against his pants pushing between her soaked nether lips was too much, a squeal of shock and fear escaped her. He only made the situation worse for her by laughing at her reaction, and then a lot worse by grinding his hips against hers as he held them in a vice grip, digging his fingers into her flesh, rubbing his covered shaft between her lips and moistening the material.

A rather obscene moan escaped her when he pressed harder against her, making contact with her sensitive clit, followed by a whine of discontent as she bit the side of her thumb in an attempt to silence herself, and her other hand clasped onto the rigid muscle of his shoulder. And then again, and again, with each stroke against her sensitive bud she was finding it increasingly difficult to be silent, she could only find more success when she heard Marik’s pleased chuckle at her struggle to contain herself. Just when she considered speaking up with some choice words, she suddenly found herself roughly tossed over on the bed.

Landing with a yelp and her face half buried into the pillow, and half covered by her hair falling over it, she wanted to try to get up, until she felt Marik move on the mattress, placing a knee on each side of hers.

On her side, she didn’t want to look at him as he loomed over her, her chest heaved with rapid nervous breaths, but she didn’t know what he was looking at, or thinking about doing, which only frightened her more.

When she heard the metallic clinking of his belt and him undoing his pants zipper, however, she felt something inside her sink, it suddenly all felt even more hopeless, a part of her suggested to just give up and endure what he wanted to do, thought which she fought with herself to dismiss.

Almost at the same time, hearing the metallic noise made another part of her throb on the inside, which was promptly followed by a deep sense of shame and guilt.

“What’s the matter, is your pussy eager for me?”

She didn’t know if Marik’s voice sounded even deeper than usual, nor if she gave some sort of physical reaction that he noticed that would lead him to say that. What she did know and wished desperately she didn’t, was the way his vulgar question drew another involuntary reaction from her nether region.

She didn’t move as he pushed the panties down from around her thighs, removing them completely and tossing them on the floor in front of where she was gazing, nor when his hands slid up her legs until they groped the flesh of her ass before grabbing the thin transparent material of her nightgown.

“This flimsy thing.” His voice sounded strained again, as if he was trying to restrain himself “You came to talk to me in that, as if you were begging for it from the start.”

Penelope frowned and swallowed, she wanted to correct him, say that she hadn’t even dreamt of that, that she was wearing more than that, but bit her tongue. She didn’t put up much resistance when he pulled the straps of her nightgown down, exposing her breasts, and pushed the hem up until it was merely a ring of material that covered a small portion of her waist.

Unbeknownst to her, however, seeing the way the lowered straps of the gown limited her arm movement suddenly gave him an idea. She didn’t know why she heard him chuckle, but expected something bad thanks to prior experience

“You know, I said I want you to struggle, but there’s something about seeing you like this…”

Her eyes widened when she heard him remove his belt entirely, fold it in two and snap it against itself. She didn’t know how to react when he pushed her on her stomach then tilted her hips, so that they would be slightly off the surface of the mattress with her ass pointed up. However, she didn’t have a choice with the loud squeal that left her when she felt the rough leather of the belt smack hard against the tender flesh of her ass.

“Shhhh, quiet now.” Marik laughed and almost gently massaged the spot he hit her on “Don’t want anyone to burst in and ruin the fun, do we?”

Penelope couldn’t help the glare that set on her face, she just began turning her head to boldly share it with him, but at the last moment turned back away upon realizing that he put the belt down to stroke his shaft as he looked at her lying there exposed, frightened and frustrated and angry and with the flesh of her ass stinging.

Despite seeing how difficult it was for her to be quiet, he couldn’t resist it; Penelope tensed up as she heard the metallic clinking when he picked up the belt again.

The sting arrived in an instant, almost at the same time as her squeal, and Marik couldn’t be sure if there really was a moan inside it, or if he was just hearing what he wanted to hear.

“Damn it..” his voice was strained again “Looks like we can’t do this here, but don’t worry, once we get back to your daddy’s mansion where you lived with my weaker personality, I’ll make you scream and squeal plenty. You really have no idea how hard it’s been to not fill your eager pussy.” Penelope drew in a sharp inhale when he moved his hand to massage the tender flesh he just hit and barely managed to suppress any reaction to his words.

Without warning, his hand moved between her legs and then his fingers slid shamefully easily inside her, a small moan left her and her toes curled at the sensation

“Once we’re back there, I’m going to fuck you in every room, on every surface, fuck you until you cry.”

Upon hearing that, however, Penelope was aghast to feel her tight internal muscles briefly clamp around his fingers in response, a horrified gasp left her, mostly drowned out by Marik’s satisfied laughter, before he spoke in that sickeningly aroused tone again

“Good girl, I knew you’re enjoying this. Makes you feel better staying in denial, hmm?”

Penelope only quickly shook her head, proceeding to deny it, burying her face in the pillow.

Marik chuckled in response, resisting the urge to touch himself, while the urge to plunge himself to the hilt inside her was far greater, and he rubbed the wetness from inside her along his throbbing shaft

“Well now, as I was saying…” her guard rose again upon hearing the clinking of his belt “I like seeing you squirm, but right now, I want to see you…” she did not expect him to move her hands behind her back, even more so to place her forearms against each other and tie his belt around them until it formed a tight and secure bind. Her lips parted in shock as she tried to move her arms, only to realize how solid the makeshift restraint was.

“More vulnerable.” He accentuated his words with a hard slap on her ass, and that, combined with the realization of how limited the movement of her arms became, made something snap in her.

“No, no, I can’t-“ the panicked words left her under her breath almost by themselves as she began thrashing about on the mattress, straining her arms painfully against the bind. It didn’t take her long to realize she had little to no chance of loosening it and freeing herself, but she couldn’t help it, she felt almost claustrophobic, unable to move such an important part of herself, all the while being trapped on the bed with someone like him.

Above her, Marik watched her with great delight, he couldn’t contain a low chuckle. Hearing it made her lose some of her resolve, she still squirmed, until it was completely halted by the weight of his arm pressing on her back, pushing her into the mattress, while his other hand couldn’t resist stroking his cock anymore.

“Trying to fight while tied up like this too? You’re giving me the best of both worlds, huh, it’s about time you started appeasing me too.”

Despite being a mess of negative emotions, his words made her anger spike and stand out

“Fuck you…” she spoke barely audibly between gritted teeth, making no effort to mask her animosity

“And I was just about to say…” Marik removing his hand from her back gave her a sensation of relief, albeit only physically “I think it’s time I stop tormenting the both of us.”

“Does that mean you’re going to get out?” Penelope retorted with noticeable spite in her tone, half of her face still buried in the pillow, and even though she could flip her hair off the other half, she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to see him.

“No, it means I’m going to get in, inside your wanting little cunt.”

Penelope blinked in surprise and embarrassment, the question crossed her mind if he was always so vulgar when he was aroused. Then she proceeded to feel horrid and guilty over the way his reply near instantly deflated her anger and replaced it with surprise and not nearly enough fear and disgust as she would have expected. And then she felt even worse when she remembered the way she physically reacted to his vulgar words just earlier.

Her internal self-chiding was interrupted by the sudden horrifying sensation of him leaning closer down over her. Upon finally feeling something round but firm, warm, and slick, lightly press between her soaked lower lips, did a shocked gasp leave her and her breath froze in her lungs.

Not even Marik’s strained yet delighted chuckle close to her ear snapped her out of it, her racing mind suddenly screeched to a halt. All the thoughts were replaced by the sobering, thorough understanding that there was no more delaying, or struggling, or teasing and tormenting; he really was about to use the body that had belonged to her best friend to wholly violate her.

What finally snapped her out of it was Marik rubbing the head of his cock back and forth against her slit, a string of frightened whines left her, what little squirming she managed to do being minimized by his weight over her. She drew a sharp inhale and her body tensed further almost automatically at the sensation of his head pressing against her entrance, the resistance lessened thanks to the amount of slick.

“Look at me.” By the sound of his voice, even in her state she could tell that he was making a great effort to not fully seat himself inside her right then, while his hand pushing the hair away from her face added to her distress “Look at me!” he repeated more aggressively, she didn’t know if he pushed against her entrance slightly harder on purpose or accidentally, but she could only do the opposite of his demand, she struggled to turn her head into the pillow so that more of her face could be hidden.

It was immediately made clear that her decision was a bad one, she squealed as he roughly grabbed her by the arms, flipping her over and throwing her back on the mattress. As soon as she landed, he pushed her legs further apart and pressed himself against her.

In her previous position, she didn’t think it could get any worse, until it just did. The feeling of his rigid bare shaft throbbing between her drenched nether lips, it was beyond violating; but at the same time, even if it wasn’t for his cock nestling against her folds, having him shirtless and mere inches from her, facing her in that position was far too intimate and invasive in a somewhat different way.

“I told you you’re not going to get through this by just looking away and waiting for it to be over.”

While his words were unpleasant, she was distracted by the way in which her breasts were pressed against his bare chest even more than they normally would be in that position, thanks to her arms behind her, pushing her back higher. The embarrassing question as to why her nipples were so hard crossed her mind, which was interrupted by a moan as he began rocking his hips back and forth, rubbing the underside of his cock against her oversensitive clit.

Biting her lip to silence herself, she quickly turned her head to the side as much as she could upon seeing the pleased smirk on Marik’s face at her forced pleasure. He didn’t allow her the little relief of not baring witness to what he was doing to her, and, to him, more importantly, what he was going to do.

Penelope whimpered at the rough way he grabbed her jaw to force her to look at him, then shoved his hand under her head, bending her neck so that she had no choice but to gaze at what was happening between her legs.

A sharp inhale left her at the sight of Marik’s cock, she was purposefully avoiding looking at it as soon as she realized he was exposed; she had never seen her friend, the original Marik, in a state of undress like that before, she never wanted to, she had no reason to. She couldn’t help the thought that this was disrespectful to him.

Judging by his words, she figured the current Marik must have noticed her reaction to the sight, including the way she still tried to avert her gaze

“What’s the matter, you still see him?”

She bit her lip again, harder, half suppressing a moan when he rubbed his shaft over her clit harder too, and only managed to nod

“Don’t worry, soon the only one you’ll see will be me.” If she wasn’t so focused on trying to remain quiet in spite of the increasingly pleasurable friction between her lips and against her clit, she would have squirmed to get away from his hand touching her cheek. She didn’t know if the gentle way in which he did it was genuine or mocking, nor what was worse, his fingers caressing her cheek intimately, or them traveling down to grab her breast invasively.

She thought she felt a sliver of relief when he released the mound of flesh, until she saw his hand travel between their legs, and the sensation of the tip of his cock being pushed against her entrance again made her heart skip a beat.

“Now tell me, how do you like it?”

Looking up at Marik, the smug smirk on his face would have irritated her in another situation, but now the only thing it did was add to her dread. She averted her gaze, which got drawn back to between her legs by a brief flick of her clit.

“Just kidding, you’ll take it the way I like it.”

With that, and no warning whatsoever, he slammed his hips against hers, his cock splitting her open far too much, and far too fast than she was ready for, despite the way her slit drooled. His tip stopped when it rammed hard against the bottom of her pussy, and the scream escaped her only partially, muffled by Marik’s mouth over hers. He didn’t silence her for longer than a few moments, wanting to hear the rest of the sounds she made, the whines and whimpers which followed as soon as he removed his lips from hers.

Penelope’s eyes teared up with pain while the cocktail of embarrassment, disbelief and fear drowned her, however, it didn’t take long for the initial sting to diminish to a certain point. To the point of allowing her to realize how good it felt to be finally stuffed to the brim.

Immediately, she dismissed the thought with horrified disgust, how could she think of something like that when her body was being violated with the stolen body of her best friend. The only thing she could do is blame it on her aroused state, which was forcefully induced to begin with.

Marik, on the other hand, she felt even sicker to her stomach when she saw the utterly delighted yet also maniacal expression on his face. His smirk looked more twisted than ever as his gaze slowly traveled down her body, pausing between their legs, and what little relief she took in the fact that he hadn’t yet moved while he was inside her was taken away without warning.

He pulled back just a little bit, then slammed back into her, as if he was trying to sheathe more of himself inside her. The pain wasn’t as much as she expected, the sudden forceful thrust did draw a whimper out of her, but what distressed her the most was the fact that it was accompanied by noticeable pleasure. When he did it again, she half suppressed a whiny moan, and couldn’t help a different fear growing in her, the fear of being unable to hide her pleasure, and the mental image of herself moaning under him, unable to stay silent, was horrifying.

As if reading her mind and determined to make that fear come true, Marik suddenly pulled back, almost completely out of her, and when he thrusted, the vicious pace he set as he rammed into her took Penelope’s breath away.

His hand hooked around her shoulder and his other grabbed her breast too tightly, pressing her into the mattress hard, but not as hard as he pressed her hips with each savage thrust. Her attempt to stay quiet was pitiful at best, it didn’t last longer than a couple of seconds, the sensation of his cock splitting her drenched tunnel open over and over was overwhelming; her jaw dropped open, allowing a string of moans and mewls mixed with pained whines to escape.

The Millennium Ring swung back and forth from Marik’s neck, she could barely hear the soft clinking noises it made as it moved, almost like a wind chime, over her own sounds, and over the sound of Marik panting like an animal in heat as he drilled between her legs. She caught a glimpse of the demented look on his face before quickly averting it, her gaze dropping lower, over his chest and the way his abs contracted with each vicious thrust, and then couldn’t help pausing between her legs. The sight of Marik’s cock disappearing inside her over and over, each time adding to her already growing pleasure when his head slammed into the sensitive spot near the bottom of her pussy, it was the most painful mix of conflicting emotions she’d ever felt.

On one hand, there was no question that the original Marik would never do this to her, it was not only violating to her, but also to the body this Marik had stolen from its original owner. On the other hand, she was having an increasingly difficult time suppressing the feeling of how utterly satisfying it was to be stretched and stuffed and fucked into the mattress that hard. It was true she was caught off guard, she expected him to start at least somewhat slowly, but the pain she initially felt was almost gone, the most she could feel was pleasure that she kept fighting with herself to keep reminding herself that it was horrible and none of this should be happening.

“Fuck-.. fuck-“ the words escaped her between moans and whines, she liked to believe they were mainly out of frustration and not approval.

They drew a breathy chuckle out of Marik, seeing the way his tongue slithered out of his mouth made her avert her gaze, until she was forced to get familiar with it again as he roughly pressed his lips against hers, surprised at how easily he was able to slide his tongue into her mouth.

Without a moment’s thought, she kissed him back, pressing her tongue against the intruding one; only after she moaned in his mouth as his thrusts slowed, grinding against her clit as his hips met hers each time, did she realize what she was doing. Horrified, she tried to turn away or at least shake her head but she couldn’t, until he parted his lips away, only to chuckle at her, pleased at how she was beginning to be unwilling to resist anymore, even reciprocating to his actions.

Lowering his head into the crook of her neck, the feeling of sandy blonde hair tickling her skin was surprising, it partially distracted her from the light bite on her neck. She did her best not to react to the strangely pleasant sensation of his tongue traveling down to her breast, circling her nipple before giving it a light bite as well. What suddenly confused her, however, was the fact that he pressed himself inside her hard once again, before stopping moving altogether. It was a strange sensation, the lucid part of her mind felt relief, while the shamefully aroused part of herself felt displeased, she had to quickly banish her body’s desire for him to continue fucking her immediately, especially when she felt his cock throb inside her.

Marik’s hand moving underneath her made her suddenly pause and cleared some of the brain fog caused by her arousal, she wasn’t sure what he was doing until she felt him fiddle with the belt that held her arms together behind her back. It took him a short while, she tried to help him by partially lifting her back off the mattress as best she could, and only after he undid the binding and removed the belt from around her arms did she remember how tight it had been squeezing her.

He tossed it on the floor, and Penelope slowly brought her arms from behind herself; moving them was slightly painful, and she noticed the pink light indentations the edge of the leather had left on her skin. Gently rubbing the tender flesh of her forearms, she soon realized the way Marik was staring at her, the intensity in his eyes making her even more uncomfortable than it normally would. When his gaze aimed at her breasts, she used her arms to cover them, and then a short surprised yelp left her as he suddenly roughly thrust inside her. It was a reminder of how full of his cock she still was, albeit an unnecessary one, since she felt it was the last thing she could forget.

“Now then, I do wonder…” Marik’s inquisitive tone unnerved her, she recalled how every time he spoke, it was one bad thing after another “What are you going to do now?” he pushed her leg wider apart, and when he lifted and placed the other on his shoulder as he leaned back down over her, she couldn’t help feeling even more exposed. Accompanying that was something else that showed up unannounced, without warning, and to Penelope, thoroughly unwanted: the realization of how feeling more exposed and vulnerable under him only made her more turned on. It wasn’t allowed to sit in her mind for longer than a millisecond, but it was more than enough to make her feel terrible about herself yet again.

“You’ve been a good girl and fought with me in vain like I wanted you to…” his proximity as he leaned back down over her, however, quickly distracted her, he brought his face too close to hers again, and she was glad that he let her turn her head to look away, at least for the time being “You squirmed good when I tied you up too.” Having him talk so close to her ear, though, was also unpleasant, and she kept her hands over her breasts, even though that meant them being against his bare chest “Now I wonder, if I fuck you hard enough, are you gonna start touching me back too?”

The amusement in his voice disgusted her, but not as much as the scenario he proposed, she didn’t hide the grimace on her features, finally understanding why he had decided to untie her arms in the first place, or at least one of the reasons

“Don’t make that face at me, now.”

Her lips parted when he suddenly pulled halfway out of her, then spread her open again. He moved slowly, yet with noticeable firmness and force, not quite gentle, and the thought crossed her mind to not get caught off guard again. She wasn’t surprised that it didn’t take long at all for the thrusts to pick up the pace, and as they did, she had to fight off the unwanted, unwelcome thought of how good it felt, and how glad she, or at least her body, was that he resumed pumping into her at a steady pace.

As if hiding her pleasure wasn’t difficult enough, Marik’s gaze refused to leave her, on top of his face being way too close to hers, he kept watching her as he fucked her. Not only was it making her even more paranoid about him noticing her pleasure, she also couldn’t help wondering what was going on through his head. The thought arose in her mind, that perhaps he was taking in the sight of something he had wanted to do for years, fully savoring it, while also enjoying both her torment and waiting to see what was left of her composure break and make her fully give in.

It wasn’t a pleasant possibility to her, but as he suddenly began ramming harder and faster into her, she wasn’t sure if the moans that left her truly escaped her or she just didn’t care enough to try to silence them. She did care to bite her lip hard in an attempt to prevent that from repeating, while her arms slid off her breasts and the feeling of the cold gold of the Millennium Ring slightly moving around over them barely registered with her.

Reluctantly, her gaze returned to Marik, and before she lowered it, she almost wished he would kiss her just so that his stare wouldn’t keep alternating from the way her breasts bounced with each hard thrust, over to her face, both were embarrassing in somewhat different ways. She pushed away the absurd wish quickly, justifying it as only something that would stop him from looking at her like that. As soon as she glanced down, however, the sight of Marik’s cock, coated in her juices, drilling into her core while he kept her leg over his shoulder, she was completely taken by surprise by how good it all looked to her, how much it turned her on, even though it wasn’t as good as he felt inside her. Her pussy throbbed and upon realizing that, while her orgasm wasn’t knocking on the door, she could still tell it was nearing, the part of her brain that wasn’t clouded by the fog of arousal suddenly kicked in.

She was immediately mortified, she didn’t know if what pressed the panic button in her mind was the threat of a nearing orgasm, or the way she failed to suppress her approval at what she was seeing and feeling, or both. Her moan was masked by a whimper and, pressing her hands against his chest, she gave the weakest, most half-hearted attempt at pushing him away yet.

“Back at this, are we? But are you even trying?” Marik laughed at her pitiful effort

She shook her head quickly, not in reply but in denial of what was happening, with every thrust into her core she could feel her orgasm inching closer. Placing her hands on his biceps and pushing was an even weaker attempt, if anything, the feeling distracted her more. She couldn’t tell if her battered pussy grew more sensitive or if Marik’s cock drilled into her at a faster pace, but judging by the way he panted too close to her face as he viciously rammed into her, she assumed both.

“M-Marik-“ the word escaped her in a breathy yet panicked voice as she weakly pushed against his chest and bicep; the fact that she could feel her orgasm much nearer sickened the lucid part of her mind, it was unacceptable, the last thing she wanted was to cum from being forcefully fucked by this Marik, this worst thing that could’ve happened to her friend.

“What’s the matter, plaything, are you gonna squeeze me inside you and come on my cock?” his voice was breathy too, but she was grateful that he slowed down significantly. The threat of her approaching orgasm vanished, and she did her best to ignore both her body’s physical reaction to his words, and how much the aroused part of her liked them.

“You have to stop-“ her voice was whiny and high pitched, she thought her body was squirming in negative response to what was happening, unaware of the way she rocked her hips to meet his slow thrusts, or of the way she had nearly wrapped her free leg around his hips.

She was taken by surprise when he suddenly stopped moving inside her, she gave him a confused look between half lidded eyes that fought to maintain what little was left of the part of her mind that wasn’t drunk with arousal. The way his smirk stretched his parted lips further in a more wicked expression only puzzled her more, until he gazed down, and her eyes followed. Immediately, seeing the way she was moving her hips back and forth, in an attempt to keep the friction inside her going, it mortified her. She had no idea that she’d been doing that, nor for how long she had been meeting his thrusts like that, and when he slapped a hand over her thigh, she also realized where her leg was and how she’d almost wrapped it around his waist when he was fucking her.

Her hips stopped moving immediately and her leg dropped onto the mattress while her hands rose to cover her mouth in disbelief, but when Marik looked at her, she covered her eyes as well. Ignoring the way her cheeks burned with a new shade of embarrassment and disgust towards herself, she couldn’t ignore Marik’s chuckle, and she prepared for whatever he was going to tell her to make her feel even worse.

“I’m going to stop, only once you’re full of my seed.”

She didn’t even have time to be grateful that he decided to not verbally address what she’d been unknowingly doing, his words instantly igniting different feelings. It was another battle inside her of how they made her more aroused, how appealing it sounded, and at the same time, how wrong and horrifying it was to what was left of the sane part of her mind.

Her internal struggle was interrupted when he suddenly began resuming thrusting into her, picking up the pace alarmingly quickly. She thought he must have figured how much she didn’t want to cum from what he was doing to her, and he decided to torment her more by snaking a hand between them and rubbing her clit, adding to her pleasure and bringing back the threat of her orgasm even faster. It didn’t take her long to realize that she wasn’t going to last, she had to do something.

With screaming for help and physically overpowering him being out of the question, the only thing her mind came up with was her phone. She struggled to reach into the pocket on the side of Marik’s leg, the way her body rocked back and forth with each vicious thrust only adding to the difficulty. As if it wasn’t hard enough, the pocket was quite deep, and much to her chagrin, her phone was resting near its bottom. Her struggle and repeated attempts got Marik’s attention, she was relieved when her orgasm stopped nearing as his thrusts paused, but then he removed his cock out of her entirely, and she wasn’t ready for how wrong that instantly felt, how empty she felt inside, and how she immediately longed to be filled by him again.

Just as she was beginning to chide herself for those thoughts and somehow try to deny they were real, Marik straightened up, grabbed her phone from his pocket, and tossed it on the bed near her

“Go ahead, call Ishizu.”

Penelope’s half lidded gaze was drawn to him, away from the phone that landed next to her face, and then averted it and mewled upon feeling his thumb rub over her oversensitive clit as he slid two fingers inside her with ease thanks to how drenched she was.

“Call her, and tell her how much you’ve been moaning under me.”

She shook her head and bit her finger, not putting enough effort to stop her other hand from pinching her hard nipple as she threw what she hoped were discreet glances at him. She didn’t know what she hated more, how good he looked like that between her legs, or how much she wanted him to fill the emptiness inside her with his cock, his fingers not being nearly as good.

Without warning, he grabbed her arms and roughly flipped her over on her stomach, his suddenly aggressive demeanor clearing away some of the fog of arousal that clouded her mind, albeit not much. What did clear away more of it was the unpleasant realization of how manhandling her like that only turned her on more.

A pained yelp left her as he dug his hand in her hair and used it to pull her up to kneel on the bed in front of him, the sensation of his stiff cock resting between her ass cheeks only adding to the conflict within her, she couldn’t shake off the desire for him to stuff her again. She didn’t know why she made a sound that mostly sounded like a moan when his hand gripped her by the throat from behind, firmly but loose enough to not restrict her breath. The way it felt so right disturbed what was left of her sane mind, she wasn’t even cognizant of the fact that she began pressing her body back against his once he grabbed her breast with his other hand. When it traveled down and his fingers teased her clit, it only accentuated the unpleasant feeling of emptiness in her pussy, she whined and didn’t like the way she actually liked hearing Marik’s chuckle and feeling his breath on her shoulder.

A part of her wanted to tell him that she wanted him to fuck her, but the idea of actually saying that to him was terrifying, she couldn’t even entertain it, she just wanted him to do it. However, she suddenly remembered how mortified she felt when she was about to cum with him inside her, and the conflict inside her sparked up again. She began giving a half-hearted squirm, and her whine of frustration was rudely interrupted and continued with a yelp as he suddenly shoved her forward, making her fall head first into the pillow while her ass remained in the air thanks to his temporary grip on her hips.

Sloppily propping herself up on her hands, she turned to glance at him, with no intent of changing the position she was in, while her gaze dropped to his crotch. He saw the needy look on her face, and as satisfying as it was, he bit his tongue to not address anything related to that. He’d been wanting to tease her so much more about how she’d been growing increasingly responsive to what was happening, but didn’t want to discourage her and make her stop, he wanted to see just how much more willing she would get.

“I’ve half a mind to call her myself” the attention his words drew was quickly redirected when she felt the tip of his cock slide back and forth along her slit. She realized too late that she pushed her hips backwards in eagerness, and she didn’t know if he chuckled at that, or at the way she barely put up any effort to suppress her mewl.

Thanks to how drenched and needy she was, the only thing she felt when he suddenly hilted inside her in one swift thrust was pleasant surprise and bliss. The obscene moan that left her knocked some sense of shame back into her, but most of it was quickly washed away when his hands gripped her hips and he began pumping into her hard and fast.

“Call her myself and tell her how deep inside you I am, and how much you’re loving it, how does that sound?” it was easy to tell from the sound of his voice how cocky and obnoxiously proud he was. At any other time, it would have bothered her, but this time, she couldn’t bring herself to care much, being more concerned with the words themselves.

She sucked her lip inside her mouth and bit it to silence her moaning while she sloppily shook her head, both in response to his suggestion, and at the realization that the knot in her abdomen was already tightening, suggesting her orgasm wasn’t far again. It did return accompanied by that sense of realization of how wrong everything that was happening was, although this time it was even more muted by the pleasure she felt. She couldn’t help it, she knew it was wrong, but she wanted to come so badly, she didn’t even care that she was actively pushing her ass back against his hips with each thrust. Glancing back, she quickly averted her gaze as soon as she saw the look of utter delight and damn near victory on his face. They both knew he had already won, and it stung Penelope, although the sting was heavily numbed by the waves of pleasure that rocked her body, physically too, with each thrust.

“Mar-ik-damn-it-“ she whispered between heavy breaths and thrusts, feeling her release dangerously close

“That’s right, you’re going to scream and moan _my_ name, the real Marik, while you come undone.”

Those words pushed the wrong button inside her, her denial to that was immediate, she shook her head hard and even surprised herself that she pushed herself forward, almost making his cock slip out of her entirely. A part of her was shamefully glad that he stopped her, even via the crude manner of grabbing her hair to keep her in place and prevent another attempt at distancing herself. A whiny moan left her as he pushed himself inside her to the hilt again but hadn’t yet moved

“You’re not Marik, I shouldn’t have called you his name, ever…”

“Ooh, but I am Marik, the real and only one, the only one who you’ll ever see from now on, who you’ll have inside your needy little cunt every night, until you learn to love it.” He quickly resumed pounding into her savagely, his patience finally beginning to dwindle; he was eager both to see the tormenting conflict in her caused by her climaxing from him fucking her, and to finish himself.

Penelope hoped her whiny moans sounded like they were less out of pleasure and more out of pain from the way his hand gripped and tugged on her hair with each thrust, while the other one’s fingers dug into the flesh of her hip. The thought crossed her mind of his hand leaving bruises there, and she shook it away upon realizing that the mental image of Marik leaving bruises on her hips from holding her tight while he fucked her hard only added to her arousal. She had lost count of the amount of times she internally questioned what was wrong with her that night.

“Although, look at you.” Marik spoke between heavy breaths, the satisfaction in his voice would have been a lot more painful if her mind wasn’t more or less drunk with arousal at that point “Who do you think you’re kidding anymore, you already love it.”

His words, along with the sudden slap on her ass knocked only a sliver of sense back into her.

“Look at me!” the aggressive, demanding tone in his voice wasn’t even necessary, if anything, it made her question what was wrong with her yet again for finding it arousing.

Even though she found it somewhat difficult thanks to the way he gripped her hair tightly, she turned to look at him, uncaring of the way her open mouth allowed her moans and mewls to escape freely, nor of the flushed needy look on her face. The proximity of her orgasm didn’t allow her to be bothered by how obvious it was that she was enjoying herself, however, seeing the twisted smirk of pride, satisfaction and victory on Marik’s face did spark a sense of ire inside her. Underneath the fog of arousal that clouded her mind, she didn’t know what she hated more, him, for doing this to her, or herself, for failing to resist and actually enjoying it.

Right when she felt her pussy throb and tighten around his shaft and her climax knocking on the door, the sensation of Marik’s cock suddenly leaving her entirely was beyond unpleasant. Her confusion was even accompanied by irritation at him for doing that, but it didn’t last. As he flipped her over and she landed with her back against the mattress, the realization that he wanted to be face to face with her while she came undone struck her with a lot less dread than she would have liked. She parted her legs without a second thought and eagerly took him back inside her with a gasp and a moan, more than satisfied for the aching emptiness inside her to be refilled, but not so much at the slow pace he began thrusting at.

While his hand slipped under her ass and over her breast, groping the flesh there, she kept hers to herself, resisting the strong urge to touch him. What did quickly start to bother her, however, was the still lazy pace he maintained inside her. When he moved his hand to rub over her oversensitive clit, she didn’t put up a fight or even make an effort to keep herself quiet; the added pleasure only frustrated her more, since it wasn’t enough to bring her climax. She didn’t have any issue anymore telling herself that she needed him to fuck her hard, but she still couldn’t bring herself even close to actually saying that to him.

He just couldn’t resist his own sadistic tendencies, he wanted to watch her squirm some more, maybe even beg for him, despite the fact that this time around those tendencies affected him negatively too. He wasn’t too surprised to see it hadn’t taken long at all for her to start squirming under him, she rocked her hips against his, desperate for more friction, needing his cock deeper and harder and faster so she could finally come.

She felt hesitant to speak up, but hearing his sadistic breathy chuckle over her gave her a push

“Marik-.. Damn it, you sick.. fuck-“ her hand slid between them impatiently, she swatted away his hand from her clit that rubbed it too teasingly slow. Her faster and harder pace instantly felt much better, it brought her orgasm back on track, but it didn’t last, as Marik swatted her hand away in turn.

The very frustrated, irritated and tired whine she gave was interrupted by a series of moans and mewls as he abruptly began slamming into her to the hilt, having decided he had tormented her enough, plus, he needed his release as well. As tempting as it was, he didn’t pin her hands or restrict their movement in any way this time, and he was pleasantly surprised when she did what he was hoping he’d bring her to do.

Penelope wrapped an arm over Marik’s neck and the other on his back, she wanted to believe it was only to have something to hold on to while he fucked her that viciously, that it wasn’t any kind of affection. At the same time, the sensation of the scars on his back under her fingertips was ever so slightly distracting, briefly bringing about memories of her friend that, had she not been this mentally gone, would have affected her a lot more. She couldn’t afford to have another internal conflict, soon she felt the knot in her abdomen tightening to the point of no return, and as much as her lucid mind hated to admit it, the way Marik panted above her like some kind of animal in heat as he rammed into her only helped to hasten her release.

“O-oh-fuck-fuck-me-I’m-coming-I-hate-you-so-“ the whispers left her with the rhythm of each thrust that rocked her body. Moments later, they were followed by a long high pitched moan that she remembered too late to try to muffle. She bit her lip in an attempt to silence herself that was almost completely ineffective thanks to the eruption of pleasure that surged through her, flooding her body with the blissful sensation, while the muscles of her thighs cramped almost painfully tightly with the intensity of her orgasm. Still, those muscles hadn’t tightened as much as the ones inside her pussy did, squeezing Marik’s cock in a vice grip as it still pumped into her, encouraging his own release, while at the same time prolonging her own pleasure. As each deep thrust into her oversensitive core sent another wave of satisfaction through her, she had no inhibitions over her tight grip on his back, even if her moderately long nails were to scratch him, and she had barely any inhibitions in regards to her shameless pleasured mewls.

Even though the fog of arousal in her mind hadn’t even come close to clearing, the way his thrusts grew increasingly irregular as he grunted and groaned in the crook of her neck, it was somewhat sobering, but not as sobering when she felt his hot cum gush inside her still pulsating, battered pussy. With each slowing thrust, she felt more cum deposited into her now overly tight canal, and while a fleeting feeling of dread crossed her mind, it was rivaled by how she still felt turned on by being stuffed with both his cock and seed now.

She didn’t know how long she laid there, breathing heavily with him still both between her legs and hilted inside her, it couldn’t have been longer than a minute until his chuckle of satisfaction in the crook of her neck helped return some lucidity to her mind.

Since her arms were still on his back, albeit no longer holding on to him for dear life, the sensation of the deep scars on his skin also aided in knocking some sense back into her. Along with each second that passed and cleared away the fog of arousal that had been clouding her mind for so long.

“Oh my god…” she spoke still with heavy breaths, sliding her hands off his back, letting them fall limp. She couldn’t help the sense of defeat inside her, among other things she fully expected to arise once she was lucid again “What did you do… I hate you so much… ooh-” a small moan escaped her when Marik slightly moved

“Do you usually sleep with the people you hate?” she could’ve sworn she picked up an amused, mocking tone in his voice

“You forced me to!” she snapped back, albeit weakly

“You sure seemed to be enjoying yourself.” The mocking, amused tone in his voice was more than clear this time, and it washed away the weakness she felt, igniting her anger. It got even worse since it was accompanied by the memories of what she’d just done and how utterly disgusted she felt with herself, she couldn’t believe the positive way she felt towards what he was doing to her mere minutes ago, she didn’t know if she was angrier towards him or herself.

She immediately struggled and squirmed to get him off of her, but not only was he heavy, her being extra exhausted due to both the late hour and after what just happened also ensured that she could barely budge him.

“Get out!” she raised her voice, refusing to stop trying, even though the movement was causing some sensations between her legs due to the way they were still connected

“Out of your room or out of your pussy?” he asked with a fake oblivious tone that only irritated her more, and she couldn’t believe, made her feel embarrassed again

“Out of my room, obviously! I-I mean both!” she snapped back, and hearing the mewl that escaped her when he did pull out of her made her shame and self-disgust grow ever so slightly.

As soon as she felt his weight off of him, she sat up and attempted to get out of bed, attempt which was quickly hindered as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back, pressing her back against his chest

“Let go of me!” she protested, physically too, by squirming against his hold

“I do wonder, are you going to put up a fight like this every time? Up until you can’t resist anymore and start participating? And then deny it again? Not that I don’t enjoy it…”

While his words made her guilt and anger rise further, his mocking chuckle sparked the latter much more, it made her squirm even harder.

In response, Marik tightened his arm around her waist and put up a little effort to mask his amusement and satisfaction as he spoke

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you, for now… I’m tired, quit squirming.”

“If you’re tired get the hell out of here, go to your own room and sleep or whatever!”

“Oh, I’ll sleep but I’m not going anywhere.”

Hearing that made her imagine having to spend the rest of the night with him like this, and the mental picture made her heart drop. She couldn’t help struggling again, but it didn’t last, not only were her efforts not enough, she also felt defeated in multiple ways. The whiny sounds she made as she ceased her squirming amused Marik

“What’s the matter, are you going to cry?” she wanted to cry, even more so when she felt his lips kiss the back of her shoulder “Don’t worry, I’ll be here all night for you.” His words didn’t fool her one bit, the sadism and mockery in his tone were obvious to her. She couldn’t help feeling that if she cried, it would make her feel slightly better, it would make her feel an ounce less guilty, but she couldn't bring herself to even force a sob out of anger and frustration, let alone sadness or any kind of trauma, and the absence of the latter two only made her feel worse.

The unpleasant feeling of defeat washed over her, and as her muscles relaxed, despite how mentally exhausted she was, she couldn’t help internally interrogating herself. She wanted Marik out of her room, at least out of her bed, but if none of those were possible, she wanted to sleep but couldn’t. Her mind kept trying to come up with some kind of sliver of redemption for herself, the thought arose that perhaps the reason why she gave up fighting him had something to do with her familiarity and positive feelings towards the original Marik, perhaps something more subconscious. Naturally, to her conscious mind that made little sense, since she was well aware that he wasn’t the friend she grew up with, plus the fact that the original Marik and her always had a platonic relationship, but she clung to that possible explanation since it helped her feel ever so slightly better.

“Where’s Marik?..” she spoke barely above a whisper, somewhat surprised that she received a decent answer

“Hm? Stubborn bastard is still around, I felt his presence earlier… You couldn’t see him, but in that duel with that other fool, he conspired against me with him. I thought I banished the both of them, but he seems to have escaped.”

Penelope ignored the displeasure in his voice, her ears perking up at his words instead

“He’s around? Where is he? Is there any way I can talk to him?”

At that, he sounded even more grumpy

“No, you can’t, and as much as I would’ve liked it, he didn’t see what I did to you… But don’t worry, I can try to inform him.”

Penelope’s interest in what he was saying turned to disgust upon hearing that. Her demeanor deflated, but then she tensed up when she felt Marik start moving around on the bed. Her brows furrowed with confusion, she didn’t want to turn around and see what he was doing, although it didn’t take her long to figure out that he was removing the rest of his clothes. The realization made her hand rise to cover her face, she had to make a great effort to resist trying to get up, knowing he wouldn’t appreciate it.

“God dammit…” she mumbled to herself under her breath, and bit her tongue when he pulled her back against him again, confirming her suspicion, after which he pulled the blanket over them.

“If it wasn’t you, must have been him and Ishizu who moved Rishid’s body.”

Penelope’s mind wasn’t allowed to linger on that, too distracted by the sensation of her nearly nude body being pressed against his. The only things he wore was the gold on him, and he began removing the only thing she wore, the night gown bunched up around her waist. Too defeated and tired in multiple ways, she didn’t put up a fight, and tried not to make her displeasure too noticeable when he got more comfortable. As he pulled her close again, however, she flinched at the feeling of one of the pointed prongs on the Millennium Ring poking into her back. After a pained hiss from her, she was surprised that he actually swung the offending object away, tossing the Ring behind his back.

“How about a good night kiss?” even in his drowsy voice she could pick up the teasing tone

“Fuck you…” the words slipped out of her reflexively, she instantly regretted being so bluntly hostile since, while she still hated him, the anger inside her wasn’t nearly as intense anymore, it left her mind lucid enough to fear potential consequences to her blatant disrespectful animosity.

“Be patient, I’ll fuck you again soon enough, I’m tired now.”

That reply, given without skipping a beat and followed by an amused chuckle, made her regret her choice of words yet again, but for different reasons.

She slightly shifted her hips, the sensation caused by the movement quickly reminding her that she was wet on the inside, but mostly because her pussy was full of his cum. She was somewhat grateful that she could pass the groan that left her as a reaction to his words instead of to the unpleasant reminder of what nearly dripped out of her.

“I want to take a shower..” she whispered as her gaze landed on the half open bathroom door, feeling discouraged that his hold around her waist didn’t budge when she experimentally pushed against it.

“Tomorrow, quiet now..” his drowsy reply drew a sigh out of her, and right when she wanted to feel relieved that at least he hadn’t commented anything in regards to the main reason why she wanted to take a shower, he continued “You can bathe all you want but I’ll still make sure you’ll be walking around with my seed inside you one way or another..”

She groaned again, hiding half her face into the pillow “I hate you…”

“You’ll get used to it all.”

The fact that she could hear the smug smirk on his face in his voice irritated her, albeit a lot less than it normally would, thanks to how exhausted she was.

As the minutes passed, despite the surreal situation of being trapped in her room and naked in her bed with someone like him, her eyelids kept getting increasingly heavier. She didn’t know how long it took her, but it wasn’t too long until she finally passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super long chapter >_>  
> Merry Christmas xP


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